By admin 
State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, and Eighth Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo are headed into a runoff on June 23 for the post of state attorney general.
Read more Goldfinch, Stumbo secure place in GOP runoff for SC attorney general
The Associated Press called the race around 9:30 pm. Early returns around that time gave Goldfinch 41 percent of the vote and Stumbo 34 percent. A candidate needed 50 percent plus one to win the nomination outright, according to the S.C. Election Commission.
In third place was First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, with 23 percent. His messages of fighting corruption and judicial reform failed to catch the imagination of Republican voters.
Perhaps more important, it didn’t help Pascoe that in May, President Donald Trump made a social media post urging state Republicans to choose someone other than Pascoe, saying that Pascoe was a “total fraud” because he had switched last year from being a lifelong Democrat to the GOP.
The exact effect of the president’s posting cannot be measured, but South Carolina voters are known for being fiercely loyal to Trump. Trump’s calling Pascoe a “fraud” had a touch of irony in it, because Pascoe as a prosecutor has convicted fraudsters, while Trump himself was convicted in New York in 2024 in a jury trial for falsifying business records. Trump is appealing the verdict.
In a brief interview late Tuesday night, Stumbo said, “We are relieved we have got over this hurdle and are ready to take on the next one. We will be fighting like crazy. I think we have a real good shot at winning this runoff.”
Goldfinch could not be reached for comment.
Pascoe, who had been attacked on the campaign trail by Goldfinch for being a closet Democrat, said he will be considering asking his voters to cast their votes possibly for Stumbo. In any case, Pascoe said there is “no chance” he will endorse Goldfinch because Goldfinch is “part of the lawyer-legislator cabal of Columbia.”
The statewide race was the first really competitive race for the attorney general’s office in years. The current attorney general, Alan Wilson, was elected in 2010 and is running for governor this year after winning four consecutive four-year terms.
All three contenders — Goldfinch, Pascoe and Stumbo — were considered qualified to hold the office of attorney general, who is the state’s chief legal officer representing state agencies in various legal situations. One of the office’s highest profile jobs is overseeing the state grand jury in criminal prosecutions.
It was the attorney general’s office that supervised the state prosecutions of white collar crimes and murder charges against Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh’s double murder conviction was recently overturned, and it will likely be up to the new attorney general to make decisions about a retrial.
Pascoe, 59, and Stumbo, 50, are both elected solicitors, or chief prosecutors, in their region of the state. They each run offices stocked with prosecutors who are in court on a daily basis trying cases, negotiating plea deals, picking juries or handling guilty pleas. Each has decades of experience prosecuting all kinds of cases.
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Pascoe had tooted his record of advocating reforms in the way the state picks its judges and prosecuting corruption in the Legislature, while Stumbo stressed how he and his office had tackled all kinds of crimes. Both said they would be ready run the attorney general’s office from the outset.
Goldfinch, 44, also stressed his prosecutorial chops — but he has done his prosecuting as a military lawyer in court settings that aren’t readily available to the press and public. More than the other two, Goldfinch also emphasized his dislike of government regulations.
In a recent ETV debate, the candidates had different stances on the legalization of so-called “medical marijuana.”
While Stumbo said he is not in favor of making medical marijuana available in South Carolina and noted there is no standard for impaired driving by marijuana, Pascoe said benefits of medical marijuana for children with seizures and cancer patients are known, and its medical uses should be studied.
Pascoe said he favors tight controls on who is able to get the drug, should it become legal.
Goldfinch said making marijuana legal in South Carolina “is a moot point” because marijuana products are freely sold in South Carolina nowadays. “Everybody is using the stuff, and it’s a real problem. … It needs to be regulated.”
Pascoe issued this statement: “Tonight I thank the thousands of supporters who stood with our campaign and cause. Together, we built a movement of principled conservatives who challenged Southy Carolina’s good ole boy political establishment in a way it has never been challenged.”
”While we came up short, we succeeded in shining a light on the need for judicial reform, accountability and an end to the culture of corruption that for too long has protected the powerful at the expense of the people,” Pascoe wrote.
Blaming “dark money” and “entrenched special interests” for his defeat Pascoe said, “The fight for honest government does not end tonight.”
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This story will be updated