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by MARK POWELL
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“For a guy in the second tier of candidates, he sure is getting a lot of attention all of a sudden.”
That’s how a D.C.-based political strategist not associated with any of the 2026 South Carolina gubernatorial campaigns described U.S. congressman Ralph Norman, one of the six candidates vying to replace lame duck Palmetto State chief executive Henry McMaster.
In fairness to Norman, if the new polling shared on this media outlet last week is accurate – his days in the “second tier” may be winding down.
The congressman from Rock Hill, S.C. has been slowly but persistently inching his way up in voter surveys all spring. The most recent poll, from Starboard Communications, put him in second place with 14%. That’s noticeably behind attorney general Alan Wilson’s 20%, but also within striking distance of the frontrunner. Three rivals – congresswoman Nancy Mace (13%), lieutenant governor Pamela Evette (12%), and Lowcountry multimillionaire Rom Reddy (10%) were all nipping at his heels.
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RELATED | PAMELA EVETTE’S LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DRAMA RAGES ON
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Their numbers (with the exception of Reddy, who has dumped several million dollars into the race over the last six weeks) have mostly fossilized or fallen. Norman, meanwhile, has crept higher. Not like a Roman candle dazzling its way upward, but quietly, seamlessly… consistently. And that last part is giving his opponents the jitters just now.
“Ralph’s the one who causes bad dreams for me each night,” an operative associated with another GOP campaign told us confidentially.
This may explain why Norman suddenly finds himself on the receiving end of steady bursts of incoming, unfriendly fire. Several Palmetto political observers told us they expected Wilson would be the initial target of such broadsides. Instead, Norman has been hit with the opening salvo of what will soon become a withering barrage of negative ads.
Reddy, who is competing for many of the same fiscally conservative voters as Norman, was the first to go negative – attacking the veteran congressman no-holds-barred, branding him a “career politician.”
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Ralph Norman says he's for term limits. But he's been in office for TWENTY YEARS! That's TEN TERMS! Where do the limits start? Three decades!?!
— Reddy Campaign (@reddyforgov) April 23, 2026
Ralph Norman is just another career politician with no results. He says one thing and does another.
It's time for something… pic.twitter.com/cKLJMeSpFt
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This negative ad wasn’t an isolated attack from Reddy – nor is the diminutive Indian-Italian the only candidate throwing shade on Norman. Consider last week’s SCGOP-sponsored candidates’ debate in Charleston, at which Wilson lobbed this verbal grenade: “Listen, I haven’t been in office since 2005…”
The remark was a clear dig at Norman’s time in the S.C. General Assembly, which was immediately followed by his election to Congress in 2017.
In the same encounter, Mace cleverly used humor to draw attention to herself among Republicans leaning toward Norman.
“One of the things Ralph always says, he wants his lieutenant governor to be a roads czar,” she said. “So, I want to ask Ralph to be my roads czar. He does that. He builds roads, he’d be great.”
Norman laughed, thanked Mace for the compliment, and added, “I would be a tremendous roads czar!”
Multiple approaches… all trained on the same target.
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“That’s not coincidental,” the D.C. strategist mentioned earlier noted. “These public responses — the negative attack ad, the debate barb, the little joke — they all publicly reflect what other campaigns’ internal polling is telling them, (which is) they need to watch their right flank, because they’re in danger of Ralph Norman turning it.”
While some within South Carolina’s political chattering class questioned Reddy’s decision to go after Norman now, others see a strategy at play.
“Rom’s only got six weeks,” a veteran politico unaffiliated with any campaign noted. “If he is to have a serious shot at taking on Alan, he’s got to get Ralph out of the way first.”
Asked to explain why Norman is making headway when other candidates are stalled, the strategist honed in on his ability to connect with voters.
“Just look at the guy,” they said. “Silver hair and that slow drawl that harkens to Henry McMaster’s voice. He looks and sounds like central casting picked him to play a Southern governor. Don’t underestimate that. Plus, he talks to people in a plain, folksy way that’s easy to understand.”
Unlike Reddy…
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RELATED | HOW ROM REDDY SOLD OUT
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Another national pollster unaffiliated with any campaign suggested another factor may be at play as well, comparing Norman’s current positioning in the governor’s race to where Donald Trump was at this stage of the 2016 presidential election.
“I call it the ‘2016 effect,’” he explained. “Remember when Trump ran for president the first time in 2016? Very few polls showed him winning the general election. That’s because some people didn’t want to tell pollsters they were going to vote for Trump, yet actually wound up doing so in the voting booth. The phenomenon happens most often with deeply conservative candidates, which Norman certainly is. I’m not saying it’s at work in South Carolina polling yet. But it might become a factor if Norman keeps gaining traction.”
If that happens, don’t expect the attacks directed his way to cease anytime soon.
Candidates must make their moves soon, though. Partisan primary elections in South Carolina are scheduled for June 9, 2026 – just 42 days away. In the event no candidate claims a majority of votes on the first ballot – which is a likelihood with such a crowded field – a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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