Businessman Billy Webster joins Democratic race for SC governor. 4 things to know
Billy Webster, a Greenville businessman who worked in President Bill Clinton’s Administration, on Wednesday joined the race for governor.
The 68-year-old is the third candidate to jump into the race for the Democratic nomination in a year when the sitting governor cannot run for reelection. It’s also a year when energized Democrats are looking to do well as they don’t control the White House or Congress.
State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland, and Charleston Attorney Mullins McLeod have already filed to appear on the June 9 primary ballot.
The Republican side has six candidates: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, businessman and DOGE SC Founder Rom Reddy, and Attorney General Alan Wilson.
“The issues that confront our state are not Republican or Democratic issues, they are South Carolina issues and we must all work together to solve them,” Webster said in his campaign launch news release.
Who is Billy Webster?
Webster worked as Gov. Dick Riley’s chief of staff, both in South Carolina and during Reilly’s tenure as secretary of education. He was a White House fellow during the George Bush’s administration.
During the Clinton administration, Webster worked as a scheduler and advance planner for the White House where he coordinated logistics Air Force One, Marine One, the Presidential motorcade, communications and the United States Secret Service.
He started a business that eventually became Advance America, which he sold in 2010. He was president of a Bojangles franchisee and founding director of automobile parts company LKQ.
He has served on the boards of Prisma Health, the largest health care system in the state, Converse College and the Upstate Warrior Solution, a veterans organization.
“I know how to get things done, I will compare my record of experience, preparation, diligence, single mindedness, to anybody’s on either side of this campaign,” Webster said.
He also has helped create Advance America and was CEO of the payday lending company.
“At the time, the only credit alternative that families had for really small-dollar credit was bouncing a check,” Webster said.
Pay day loan companies tend to have poor reputations as predatory. But Webster said his company pushed for consumer protections that considered collection practices, duration and frequency of loans.
He sold the business in 2010.
“Part of the reason we sold it is I really became the most unpopular guy in the industry because I was advocating consumer protections that most of the rest of the industry did not embrace,” Webster said.
Why does it make sense for Webster to run?
Although polling in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor has been slim, neither Johnson nor McLeod is close to having support of the majority of potential primary voters.
A South Carolina Policy Council poll of 348 likely Democratic primary voters released in February found Johnson had support of 25% of the electorate. McLeod had only 8%, but two-thirds were undecided.
A three-way Democratic primary could further split the electorate. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the June 9 primary, the top two vote-getters will advance to a June 23 runoff.
What advantages does Webster have?
Webster is a wealthy businessman with the ability to pump his own money into a campaign similarly to McLeod who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, as well as Republican candidates Norman, Reddy and Evette.
“I’m going to have skin in the game, because I can’t go ask other folks to support my candidacy and my campaign if I don’t believe in myself,” Webster said in his first interview ahead of his launch. “I will raise money, small denomination contributions, larger ones, and I’ll also contribute my own funds in a way that is appropriate during the campaign. I’m not in this for vanity project.”
But he doesn’t want his wealth to be looked down on.
“I don’t know why wealth has anything to do with that. We’re all going to be evaluated by every voter, one at a time, based on who we are, what our values are and what are our experiences,” Webster said.
What challenges does Webster face?
Although Webster has been a regular Democratic Party donor, he did not spend the last year building up his name ID with voters and will have a short amount of time to expand his name recognition beyond party insiders and donors.
Webster also will have to fight back against narratives that party power brokers wanted to force Johnson out of the race in order to clear the way for Webster.
“Rep. Johnson, he is a good man, and he deserves tremendous credit for his courage in getting in this race when nobody else was prepared to. He’s a gifted orator and he’s a good guy, and I think whoever is pushing some narrative that I or others tried to force him out of the race, that’s the kind of unproductive noise that I just am not going to engage in,” Webster said.
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
