Trump taps SC donors for ever-moving Carolina fundraiser

It has been a reluctant romance. But some top S.C. Republican fundraisers are coming around to Donald Trump.

Spartanburg financial consultant Barry Wynn, a leading booster for the Bush presidential campaigns, said the GOP presidential nominee’s folks reached out to him for the first time in recent weeks.

The former S.C. GOP chairman said he would help raise money, but did not request any formal role on Trump’s finance team.

“Don’t need one, don’t want one,” Wynn said, adding he is happy to help as Trump’s aides strive to reach the GOP’s Old Guard – to “bring in some of the wayward crowd.”

“The galvanizing force there is (that) people just can’t imagine the Clintons back in the White House,” Wynn said.

Other top GOP boosters are keeping low profiles this go-around, too, only recently hearing from the Trump campaign.

“I’m gonna vote for Donald Trump, and I’m going to contribute some,” said Florence doctor Eddie Floyd, a top GOP fundraiser for George W. Bush and, this year, a supporter of the failed bids for the GOP nomination by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush. “But I’m not actively involved in his campaign.”

David Wilkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada and S.C. House speaker, said he would be happy to circulate a Trump solicitation for support. “It’s a big country. It looks like he’s got a good team put together based on that email I received.”

Finance co-chairs take shape

Last week, Trump’s S.C. chairman Ed McMullen said he, former S.C. Ports Authority Chairman Bill Stern and S.C. Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster – the first statewide elected official in the nation to endorse Trump – would chair the candidate’s S.C. fundraising committee.

The campaign is building a list of finance co-chairs who would give money or raise at least $100,000 for Trump.

So far, they are:

▪ Joe Taylor: The S.C. commerce secretary under Gov. Mark Sanford and chief executive of Southland Capital Partners said he plans to make a “significant contribution” to Trump’s efforts and help raise money. “I’m not sure that free enterprise can stand four more years or eight more years of the policies we’ve been handed over the last eight years.”

▪ Bob Royall: The S.C. commerce secretary under Gov. David Beasley and U.S. ambassador to Tanzania under President George W. Bush said he is supporting Trump, in part, because he thinks he will “keep us safe.”

▪ Jim Shore: A figurine artist from York

▪ Van Hipp: Chairman of American Defense International, author of a book about terrorism, and former S.C. GOP chairman and deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Army

▪ Alan Clemmons: A Myrtle Beach real estate attorney and seven-term Republican state representative

On the road again

Trump’s Carolina fundraiser just can’t keep still.

Last week, the campaign announced a Sept. 27 fundraiser south of Charlotte at an undisclosed location. Those plans shifted the event from a S.C.-based event in Charleston to Charlotte, putting it in a battleground state.

However, after protests over the fatal police shooting of Keith Scott rocked downtown Charlotte, McMullen said Friday the campaign is looking for a new Charlotte-area location for a Trump rally and fundraiser in the next two weeks.

“It’s just not the right time to be in downtown Charlotte,” McMullen said, adding the campaign did not want to further burden law enforcement with the GOP presidential candidate’s entourage.

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 6:25 PM.