By Andy Brack
The Republican race for a gubernatorial candidate in 2026 could easily become a B-team bloodbath.
Already, there are three announced candidates. And with more likely to jump into the wide-open race in the weeks ahead — incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster is term-limited — it easily could spin out of control, with ever shriller opponents trying to distinguish themselves as the 2026 primary approaches. Or not – if you think the current version of the GOP can keep itself out of the gutter and focused on policy differences. (Fat chance.)
The problem Republican voters will face in 2026 is that most of the candidates are not true leaders in the style of former Gov. Carroll Campbell or even McMaster. They’re followers, at best – B-team players who have hung on for years trying to reach the next rung of power.
Just look at current Attorney General Alan Wilson, who many consider the front-runner. He’ll be a law-and-order candidate, for sure, but he’s not done that much to distinguish himself in big-picture policy or intellectual rigor over the years. About all he’s known for on a national level is lemming-like chiming in on every partisan lawsuit filed against Democratic presidential administrations.
Incumbent Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, a political unknown elected on McMaster’s ticket in 2018, is still pretty much an unknown after years in Columbia.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, elected as a newcomer in 2020 to a Spartanburg seat in the state Senate, looked like the fresh, young voice when he announced a few weeks ago – a face that could inject something new in a staid race. But his campaign seems to be falling apart before our eyes after accusations of financial shenanigans earlier this month by a business partner in an aviation leasing company.
Two other names you’ve likely heard as possible gubernatorial candidates are U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace of the Charleston area and Ralph Norman of the Rock Hill area. Both are making moves to expand their outreach across the state with Mace taking several stunt-laden scouting trips to see voters and Norman using lots of spammy texts to try to engage with potential voters outside his district.
Mace might want to try to become the state’s big political deal after McMaster to feed her ego and because she’s wearing out her welcome in Washington – where it’s harder to get on national television because some of her antics have crossed the line. And Norman, 72, may be looking to wind up a career as governor because he’s become something of a conservative pariah in Washington – opposing Trump on items the president wants, only to pull back and cave at the end.
The one name you might not have heard of as a possibility is state Sen. Sean Bennett, a solid old-school Summerville Republican who we hear is getting pressure from the business community to jump into the race. A financial planner who is seen as having a long-term strategic view of the state, he’s been in the state Senate since 2013.
Conventional wisdom holds that the more people who are in a primary race, the more likely that race could devolve into a personality contest with high-falutin’ charges and countercharges as people try to make themselves more memorable.
Maybe the smart thing, however, in 2026 is for candidates to distinguish themselves through serious campaigns about public policy and their vision for South Carolina instead of social media attention grabs.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send it to feedback@statehousereport.com.
