By Adrian Ashford and Seanna Adcox
NEWBERRY — Four Republicans seeking to be South Carolina’s next governor met on stage Wednesday, April 1, for a debate that turned out to be mostly congenial, with the most obvious separation on their stances coming from a question about gambling.
The front lawn of the sold-out Newberry Opera House, which seats about 400, was decked out in campaign signs as the party faithful filed in to hear from candidates in the first debate ahead of the June 9 primaries. This year is the first time in 16 years with no incumbent running for governor.
The four who participated were state Sen. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg County, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of Charleston County, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman of York County, and Attorney General Alan Wilson of Lexington County.
Each had only 45 seconds to respond to questions, save for their opening and closing statements. Here are some highlights of the one-hour televised event.
Gambling
In the last two years, efforts to legalize gambling in various forms have intensified. One thing preventing real traction is the guaranteed veto of Gov. Henry McMaster, who’s opposed gambling throughout his career, to include campaigning against the state lottery question on ballots in 2000.
Asked about their position on casinos, online sports betting or other types of gambling, candidates gave widely different answers. No one, however, used the word “veto.”
The closest answers came from Norman and Wilson. Both made clear they oppose casinos, which both said bring in criminal enterprises including human trafficking.
Norman didn’t address other forms but pledged not to take any donations from gambling interests.
Wilson said he’d be open to having a conversation about legalizing online gambling, saying “the technology doesn’t exist to stop” it.
Kimbrell, on the other hand, stressed he opposes “being able to pull out your phone and gamble.” But he would be OK with putting a casino along I-95 as an economic boost to a poor region.
“I don’t believe South Carolina should be Atlantic City,” he said, but the idea of a casino “should not be discarded if we do it properly.”
Mace didn’t take a stance on any form of gambling, other than to say “people are already online betting.” She said she’d want to review any legislation and ask voters what they think.
All behaved
Even the candidates seemed surprised at how well they got along.
The questioning ended with a request for a show of hands of who would support the eventual nominee. All four raised their hands.
“We did good,” Mace said.
Kimbrell then started his closing statement with, “Didn’t we all behave so well, by the way?”
A ‘misprint’
The only pushback in the debate came when Wilson attempted to correct Norman on a claim of wasteful government spending.
As an example of “waste, fraud and abuse,” Norman criticized “the billion that they found last year, all of a sudden it just got spent with the Legislature. No one in the Legislature spoke up about that.”
When it was his turn to speak, Wilson said, “I think the billion dollars you were talking about, Ralph, wasn’t actually real money misspent. It was a misprint.”
In a rebuttal, Norman said, “Whether it was a misprint or not, no one spoke up in government to say, ‘This is a problem.’ They just let it go.”
Actually, there are several things wrong about that claim.
It was a $1.8 billion accounting error that surfaced in 2024 in the treasurer’s office as senators delved deeper into a $3.5 billion accounting snafu in the comptroller general’s office. Ultimately, outside auditors determined the bulk of the money was never real. All but $200 million existed only on paper. No misspending was found. And there was no excess to spend.
Fortunately, the errors did not affect state budgeting, since the Legislature relies on revenue numbers from a different state agency altogether. The inflated figures were in reports given to Wall Street investors.
The errors did go unreported, including to the General Assembly, which prompted the state Senate to vote last year to remove Treasurer Curtis Loftis. But the House declined to take up the issue, and Loftis is seeking re-election. No Republican is challenging him, so he is the GOP nominee. He maintains he did nothing wrong.
Tax cuts
In the first question of the debate, candidates were asked to name what they believed to be the “single biggest issue facing South Carolina right now.”
All of the candidates except for Norman cited “affordability” and the cost of living, and emphasized cutting taxes as a way to fix that.
Norman started his list of issues with “fraud, abuse, and corruption,” saying “term limits is the only way to get career politicians out.”
As for cutting taxes, Mace pointed to what she called “almost $3 billion extra in new money” in the state’s general fund this year as proof it’s possible to eliminate state income taxes quickly.
That refers to the $2.45 billion total available to the Legislature for the upcoming budget, according to last fall’s estimates from the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. That’s a combination of expected continued growth, unspent reserves, and taxes that came in above expectations in prior years.
Less than $735 million of the total is recurring money that’s meant for ongoing expenses, according to the November report. However, that number has dwindled since.
A bill signed into law Monday cutting income tax rates is expected to reduce collections by $309 million in the upcoming budget. A separate bill passed unanimously in February by the Senate, which Kimbrell noted he co-sponsored, would further reduce available revenue by $259 million. It would expand property tax breaks for homeowners 65 and older.
The House hasn’t taken that up, as representatives instead passed a bill further reducing income tax collections by $289 million. Senators said “no” to that Tuesday. What becomes of the property tax bill may come down to a budget fight between the two chambers.
Kimbrell, a senator since 2020, was the only candidate on stage to talk about working with legislators to get things accomplished. The governor doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally change tax policy — or any other state law.
Norman, a former legislator in the state House, said he’d use the power of the line-item budget veto to eliminate spending.
But, as he knows from experience, those vetoes are usually overridden, particularly when the governor takes a combative approach to the Legislature. While Norman backed the vetoes of GOP governors Mark Sanford and Nikki Haley, his colleagues overturned them. Sanford famously took piglets into the Statehouse in 2004 to protest how quickly the House voted to undo his budget vetoes.
Who wasn’t there
Ahead of the debate, a person in a chicken costume held up a sign outside the venue’s front doors that read “chicken Pam,” a barb at Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who was one of the three GOP candidates who didn’t attend.
Asked if the costume was in support of any particular campaign, the person responded only with a squawk.
Evette told reporters last Thursday it would be too expensive to bring as many of her volunteers as she’d like. The GOP offered each candidate a maximum of nine free tickets for five family members and up to four campaign workers.
Isle of Palms businessman Rom Reddy, who jumped into the race March 16, was ineligible to attend until the party changed its rules Friday for qualifying. A spokesperson said he couldn’t be at the first debate for scheduling reasons but would attend the party’s other debates.
Jacqueline Hicks DuBose of Hartsville was a surprise entry into the race. She submitted her paperwork Monday with just an hour left in the two-week filing period. The party formally invited all of the other GOP candidates Friday afternoon. She did not respond to phone and text messages from the S.C. Daily Gazette on whether she asked to participate.
The next debates
Future debates organized by the state GOP are set for April 21 at the College of Charleston and May 26 at Wofford College in Spartanburg. A fourth debate, in the likely event of a runoff, is scheduled for June 16 at Coastal Carolina University in Conway.
The candidates participating Wednesday will convene again April 9 at a forum in Florence hosted by U.S. Rep. Russell Fry of Horry County. Evette has said she’ll attend that event, which is not a debate. All participants will appear on stage separately to lay out their platform and answer questions from the 7th District congressman, who has no primary opposition.
Reddy’s senior strategist said he won’t attend: “We are not going to be agreeing to every forum and following the ruling class around the state,” Wesley Donehue said, adding that Reddy will host his own events ahead of the primary.
Adrian Ashford covers campaigns and elections for the S.C. Daily Gazette. Before moving to South Carolina, he covered faith and religion for The Dallas Morning News. He studied religion and politics at Harvard and wrote a thesis about evolving interpretations of the First Amendment.
Seanna Adcox is a South Carolina native with three decades of reporting experience. After covering the S.C. Legislature and state politics for 18 years. she launched the S.C. Daily Gazette in November 2023 as the 37th state affiliate under the States Newsroom umbrella. Her previous employers include The Post and Courier and The Associated Press.
The S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.