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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina lieutenant governor Pamela Evette – who has trailed her 2026 governor’s race rivals in most recent polls – now narrowly leads the field, assuming the results of a new Co/efficient survey are to be believed.
According to the survey, Evette was supported by 19% of likely Republican primary voters in her bid to replace her status quo mentor, Henry McMaster. If accurate, that would put her narrowly ahead of first district congresswoman Nancy Mace, who drew 18% support.
That’s an exact flip-flop from the results of Co/efficient’s September 2025 poll – which had Mace at 19% and Evette at 18%.
Four-term attorney general Alan Wilson – who leads the GOP field in most surveys – was backed by 15% of likely primary voters in this particular poll, down 1% from the last Co/efficient survey. Meanwhile fifth district congressman Ralph Norman was backed by 13% of respondents – up from 10% in September.
All of these modest shifts, incidentally, were within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.46%.
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RELATED | ROM REDDY’S ROI
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The biggest mover in the race? Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy.
When this firm last polled the gubernatorial candidates, Reddy was not among them. Instead, he was at the helm of what many believed was a bold new reform movement aimed at fundamentally reshaping the results-challenged S.C. General Assembly. Reddy has since abandoned that effort, however, to mount a self-funded gubernatorial bid. Just ten days after announcing his candidacy, Reddy was already polling at 5%.
“We have been in the race for a week and we are already polling one-fourth of the ‘front runner,'” Reddy boasted on X. “Just a matter of weeks until we are leading. People are ready for something different.”
People are ready for something different… but they may not be ready for Reddy.
A closer look at the multimillionaire’s profile revealed only 23% of GOP voters had formed an opinion of him (42% were unsure of him while 35% had never heard of him). That’s not surprising for a first-time candidate, though. What was surprising? Voters’ early impressions of Reddy. Of those who had formed an opinion of him, only 12% viewed him favorably compared to 11% who already had an unfavorable impression of him.
That’s a shockingly high unfavorable percentage for a political newcomer – and highlights the extent to which Reddy’s massive war chest must be effectively deployed over the coming two months.
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Reddy’s unfavorables were already equal to Norman’s – who has held a districtwide office for nearly a decade. They were also just 3% lower than Wilson’s, who has held a statewide office for the last sixteen years. Unless Reddy can find a way to better relate to the primary voters he is attempting to woo, the upward trajectory he is bragging about on social media could quickly encounter a hard ceiling.
Co/efficient surveyed 805 likely South Carolina Republican primary voters using a mix of landlines and mobile text responses between March 26-27, 2026. Its same-day results immediately drew rebukes from many Palmetto political insiders, who have long-believed its results were skewed to favor Evette.
Referring to Evette’s ongoing efforts to land the backing of president Donald Trump, one rival noted the survey was just “another last ditch attempt with juiced poll numbers” to secure Trump’s endorsement. Complicating those efforts? Evette’s 28% favorability among self-styled Trump Republicans. That figure trailed all three of the other frontrunners – Mace (47%), Wilson (32%) and Norman (30%) – among this segment of the electorate.
Filing for this office closes at 12:00 p.m. EDT this coming Monday (March 30, 2026). In addition to the six GOP candidates, three candidates have filed for the Democrat nomination – state representative Jermaine Johnson, wealthy trial lawyer Mullins McLeod and multimillionaire Upstate businessman Billy Webster.
Several minor party candidates have also filed, included Gary Votour (Workers’ Party), Walid Hakim (Green Party) and Michael Addison (United Citizens’ Party).
Partisan primary elections are scheduled for June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate wins a majority of votes in the primary, a head-to-head runoff election between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026). As we often note, the GOP primary is the race to watch in South Carolina. Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial race since 1998 – and haven’t won a statewide election since 2006. That means whoever captures the Republican nomination is all but assured of prevailing in the general election come November.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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8 comments
Reddy is still polling at “Rom who” levels. The polls have gone back and forth for months – none of it means anything at this point. The only thing that is clear is that Johnson, McClod and Webster are just wasting money.
I’ll vote in the Republican primary, but I’m going to vote for the Democrat for governor (and every other state office). Why? Because until Republicans in this state actually fear they might lose elections they have no reason to be responsive to their constituents.
So what you’re saying is you’ll vote for the winning side during the primaries, and flop during the actual election. Your time would be better spent staying home.
Is AI writing this shit?
Reddy would be better suited to run for the Lollypop Guild. The little squirt is just running so he can keep his sea wall. Never trust a guy who’s 5’3″ tall and 2′ of that is head. Reddy is bragging about using his own money, that’s because until his sea wall tantrum nobody knew who he was. Now that they do, they’re finding out he’s just a half-pint who demands to get his way. I didn’t realize that they had such nice suits in the boys section of Sears.
Good to see you Squishy! RR is a special kind of unserious.
Still no-one in this race that I feel excited to vote for. Prolly going to be a last- minute spin the bottle in the election booth. Mace seems a touch crazy and a bit of a political windsock, Wilson has a decent track record but is deep in the establishment and won’t touch any of their sacred cows, Evette seems to be another milquetoast mediocre in the vein of McMaster, and Rom I’m still evaluating but first impression is napoleon complex with money – although that means he probably can’t be “bought” which is more than the others have going for them. None of them would seem to be a likely disaster or major mistake, but none of them seem ready to aggressively pursue the needs and priorities of the average person trying to make a living in this State. If I had to sum this election up in one word thus far it’s “meh.”
After the last debate they all said the same thing I will not allow gambling I will not allow legal marijuana I will not allow women to have a choice.They will only do what they want.why not put these on ballot and let the people vote on it and do what We The People want