Stumbo wins Republican runoff for SC attorney general, media projects

Solicitor David Stumbo won a victory Tuesday in the Republican runoff primary for the South Carolina attorney general’s race, beating state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, in a race called by the Associated Press and New York Times around 9 pm with 70% of the vote reported.

Stumbo won handily, winning some 54 per cent of the vote if trends hold up as the night goes on. All results are unofficial until certified.

Stumbo, 50, will face Democrat Richard Hricik, a Mount Pleasant attorney, in the November general election.

Both Stumbo, the 8th Circuit Solicitor, and Goldfinch, a state senator from Georgetown and Horry counties, were running for a vacant attorney general post. The 16-year incumbent, Alan Wilson, ran for governor and Tuesday night trounced his runoff opponent, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

Rick Hubbard, 11th Circuit Solicitor of Lexington who backed Stumbo, said Tuesday night, “I’m tremendously relieved, and I’m so proud of how hard he worked., he and his wife, Vanessa, both. I ‘m excited for South Carolina. He’s genuine. The guy you meet is the same guy, day in and day out.”

The State reached out to Stumbo but has not so far got up with him.

Goldfinch said in a social media post on Facebook, “It didn’t turn out for us this time, but I’m mighty proud of the campaign our team ran and the work they put into this race. God has a plan for us and it’s not at the Attorney General’s office. I trust the plan and my hope and faith in Christ gives me comfort and peace through this loss. I sincerely congratulate the Stumbo family and fully support David M. Stumbo in the General Election in November.”

The attorney general’s race was closer than governor’s race. Media called Wilson the winner at 7:27 pm, but waited until around 9 pm to declare Stumbo the winner.

Given that South Carolina’s electorate is solidly conservative Republican and no Democrat candidate has won a statewide election for years, Tuesday’s GOP winner Stumbo is a solid favorite to be the next state attorney general.

Who is David Stumbo?

Stumbo, whose campaign tagged him as “the conservative prosecutor,” has been 8th Circuit Solicitor, or elected prosecutor, since 2013. He is currently in his fourth four-year term. The circuit covers Greenwood, Abbeville, Laurens and Newberry counties.

He is a veteran of four death penalty trials and indicated in a press conference Thursday that he wants to play an active role in the second trial of accused double murderer Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh’s murder convictions were overturned in May by the S.C. Supreme Court.

No date has been set for Murdaugh’s retrial but it will likely not take place until next spring at the earliest, after Stumbo is sworn in as attorney general.

Before becoming solicitor, he worked in the attorney general’s office for six years and as an assistant prosecutor in Lexington County for four years.

In campaigning, he stressed that his experience in the attorney general’s office and the 11 Judicial Ciricuit as a prosecutor made him the perfect candidate for the job.

“My experience ... makes me the most qualified to lead that office for the next four years,” Stumbo told reporters during a campaign stop Thursday at the Lexington County courthouse.

“I have over 20 years experience in the legal field, I know the judges in the state, I know the attorneys around the state, and I have good relationships in the General Assembly,” Stumbo said. As for the attorney general’s office, he said, “I know that office inside out.”

Stumbo had the backing of 10 of the current 16 solicitors and 22 of the state’s 46 sheriffs.

Stumbo graduated from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia, a private Christian school in 1998 and from the University of South Carolina Law School and became a lawyer in 2004, according to his campaign biography.

He will be the first solicitor in at least 60 years to have facial hair.

Originally, three candidates vied to be state attorney general in the Republican primary.

The third candidate, 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe of Orangeburg, was out of the race after placing third in the June 9 primary with just 107,086 votes, or 24 percent of the total.

Goldfinch placed first in the June 9 primary, so it appeared that enough of Pascoe’s voters chose to support Stumbo over Goldfinch, who had mercilessly attacked Pascoe in campaign ads.

After his third-place finish, Pascoe endorsed Stumbo.

“I am voting for David Stumbo for Attorney General. He is the ONLY real prosecutor and conservative left in the Attorney General’s race. I urge my supporters to do the same. Our state cannot afford for you to sit out on the upcoming election!” Pascoe posted on Facebook on June 11, two days after his losing primary.

On paper, Pascoe looked like he would be the kind of candidate that would at least make it into the runoff.

He is a successful, elected prosecutor who won death penalty trials and who had tackled corruption in the General Assembly, securing a half-dozen convictions of then-current and former lawmakers. He had also campaigned reforms in how South Carolina chooses state judges, helping make that issue one that attracted public attention.

But Pascoe had three things going against him. He was a former Democrat in a state where many Republicans despise the other party. And President Donald Trump made a social posting urging Republicans to vote against Pascoe. Moreover, he comes from a rural area of the state. Goldfinch is from the populous Horry County-Myrtle Beach coastal area; Stumbo from the Upstate, with its sizable Republican voting blocs.

In the June 9 primary, Goldfinch and Stumbo placed first and second, respectively.

In that race, Goldfinch won 175,921 votes, or 39.9 percent, and Stumbo won 156,876 votes, or 35.6 percent.

The attorney general’s office

The attorney general’s post, which pays $208,000, is not as well known as, say, the governor’s position.

But the attorney general oversees a sizable state agency, with 381 mostly full-time positions, including 100 attorneys. Its budget last fiscal year was $121 million in state, federal and other funding.

The office oversees civil litigation involving the state and supervises the state’s 16 elected solicitors, or criminal prosecutors, and their staffs. Its lawyers represent the state in death penalty appeals and oversee the state grand jury, with its broad subpoena powers and multicounty jurisdiction.

Prosecutors in the attorney general’s office take on high-profile criminal cases, such as accused killer Alex Murdaugh’s now-overturned double murder conviction.

The office also writes numerous legal opinions every year that, while not having the force of law, serve as guidance to local governments, state agencies and others as to what a court might decide in any given legal situation.

And the attorney general has the power to dole out contracts with private attorneys to do legal work for the state that may result in millions of dollars in fees for those lawyers. The possibility of fat payouts made this race closely watched by many lawyers in the state.

Goldfinch also said in his statement that he and his wife Renee “are honored by the outpouring of support, and we thank each of you that voted for us and put your money, time and support into our campaign. On a positive note, I’m now the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee! I look forward to continuing to serve South Carolina…and doing a little more fishing now that the campaign is over. “

Through late May, Goldfinach had far more campaign contributions than Stumbo. Goldfinch had raised $981,707. Stumbo had raised $543,712, according to the state ethics commission.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 9:14 PM.