By admin 
In Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who finished first in balloting, won 25 counties. Attorney General Alan Wilson had the most support in 16 counties.
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With a runoff set for June 23 between Evette and Wilson to determine the Republican nominee, they’re each trying to gain support from those who voted for U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, businessman Rom Reddy and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace.
Norman had the largest chunk of voters available after his third-place finish. He had a plurality of votes in Cherokee, Chester, Union and York counties, all of which are in the 5th Congressional District which Norman represents.
Norman also had the most votes in Greenville County, where Evette lives.
In Tuesday’s primary, candidates received a majority of the votes in only three of South Carolina’s 46 counties: Horry, Marlboro and Florence.
Evette won a majority of votes in Horry County, an area that has grown in population with Republican leaning retirees moving in from Democratic-controlled states. It’s an area where President Donald Trump is popular and where his endorsement of Evette probably carried a lot of weight.
She also received a majority of Republican votes cast in Marlboro County.
Evette also did well in Aiken County where she had support from several of the area’s General Assembly members, and had a plurality of votes in Spartanburg County. She also won in Jasper and Beaufort Counties, and Wednesday, touted the endorsement from state Rep. Jeff Bradley, R-Beaufort. Evette on Friday added to her endorsement list state Treasurer Curtis Loftis, the only other statewide official other than Gov. Henry McMaster to weigh in on the race.
Wilson was the lead vote getter in Lexington County where he lives and in the other Midlands counties of Richland, Newberry and Calhoun.
Wilson also won in Charleston County, where former rivals Mace and Reddy live. He won in Berkeley, Dorchester and Colleton counties.
After Tuesday’s primary, Wilson now has the support from three previous Norman backers, state Reps. Nathan Ballentine, Jay Kilmartin, Jackie Terribile and Joe White, the latter three being hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus members. Wilson also added state Sens. Michael Johnson and Everett Stubbs and state Reps. Brandon Guffey, David Martin and Heath Sessions to his endorsement list.
Wilson received a majority of GOP votes in Florence County where his lieutenant governor running mate, state Sen. Mike Reichenbach, is from and owns two car dealerships. Wilson also had a plurality of votes in neighboring Darlington and Williamsburg counties.
Evette finished in first place Tuesday receiving 28.86% of the vote. Wilson was in second place, with 26.14% of the vote. Her advantage was 12,837 votes, out of the 472,956 votes cast.
What polling said before primary
Will Evette win those same counties June 23 when just two candidates are on the ballot?
An early poll taken on June 1-2 by Opinion Diagnostics tested the Evette and Wilson in a head-to-head matchup. Wilson led by 19 points.
The poll also had Evette at a 34.5% favorability rating and a 42.7% unfavorable rating. It had Wilson at a 45.5% favorable rating and a 24.7% unfavorable rating.
The poll also had Wilson at 21.6% in the primary and Evette at 16.9%.
A Tyson Group poll taken before the primary indicates Wilson has more room to grow his vote share. Wilson was viewed favorable by 42% of respondents and unfavorable by 22% of respondents. Evette was viewed favorable by 35% of respondents and unfavorable by 29%.
In a co/efficient poll leading up to Tuesday’s primary, Wilson had higher support with voters 18-44 years old than Evette. She did better with voters 45-54. They were even among poll respondents 55-64 and Evette led among respondents 65 and older.
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Wilson did better in the poll among those people with a graduate degree. Evette did better among those with only a high school education, some college or a college diploma.
Where will the votes come from
Runoff turnout also tends to drop from the primaries.
In 2018, when Gov. Henry McMaster was running for his first full term after ascending to the office, 367,983 votes were cast in the GOP primary for governor. The Republican runoff had 343,635 votes.
Republican strongholds such as Beaufort, Greenville, Lexington and Spartanburg counties will have lots of votes up for grabs.
Evette’s hometown of Greenville County will be a battleground because Norman had 13,805 votes, and Wilson actually finished in second place with 13,477 votes. Evette was in third with 13,170 votes.
Evette’s vote margin in Horry County was much better, where she received 20,505 votes. Wilson was in second with 6,325 votes.
Now Wilson and Evette have to convince those who voted for other candidates to show up June 23 and vote for them and remind their original supporters to return to polls too.
Both state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, who dropped out several days before the primary, and Mace have endorsed Wilson. Mace received 57,370 votes in the primary.
Norman, who finished in third place received 80,774 votes and has not said if he’ll endorse in the runoff.
Reddy, who spent $5.8 million of his own money between mid-March and May 20 in his short bid to be governor, finished in fourth place with 66,990 votes. He said he would not endorse.
In his primary night remarks, Wilson made an appeal to voters who supported other candidates who have been eliminated from the race.
Wilson called Norman a conservative juggernaut who challenged the status quo, Reddy a successful businessman who is a plainspoken outsider, Mace as a maverick who shook things up, and Kimbrell as a state senator adept at articulating his message.
“If I wasn’t your … first choice, I’m willing to be your second choice tomorrow morning,” Wilson said. “Give us a chance to fight for you, to fight for the ideals that you found so valuable in those other counties.”
Wilson didn’t say Evette’s name in his primary night remarks.
Evette went on the attack against Wilson, and didn’t mention any of the GOP hopefuls.
“South Carolina, you sent a message tonight. You spoke clearly and said: ‘We want a business leader, an entrepreneur, someone who created jobs — someone like Donald Trump — who is going to bring private-sector experience to government’,” Evette said.
Read more Some Lexington County roads are closed for emergency inspection, SCDOT says