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by WILL FOLKS
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Two months ago, I penned the definitive critique of Lowcountry multi-millionaire Rom Reddy‘s ill-conceived foray into South Carolina gubernatorial politics. In that treatise, I questioned why Reddy – the Isle of Palms businessman who founded (and then cannibalized) the erstwhile influential DOGE SC reform movement – would surrender his growing sway within the Palmetto State’s all-powerful legislative branch to mount a Quixotic bid for governor.
Reddy’s decision was especially curious considering the South Carolina governor’s office is one of the most constitutionally weak executive posts in the nation – one with little real power beyond the bully pulpit. Per the antiquated constitution of 1895, Palmetto State governors control only a portion of their own branch of government – with legislative leaders making the laws, controlling the judiciary through the election of judges and managing broad swaths of the executive branch via a maze of unaccountable boards and commissions.
It’s a legislative tyranny, in other words, one controlled by a handful of powerful lawyer-legislators beholden to a very narrow set of special interests… a cabal that defies partisan/ideological labels, trends or movements.
If you want to change South Carolina – you have to change the legislature. And unseat those corrupt interests.
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We thought Reddy understood that calculus. Don’t most businessmen intuitively understand the concept of return on investment? With DOGE SC, Reddy pledged his vast personal fortune toward a fundamental reorientation of the S.C. General Assembly’s governing dynamic – and he appeared to be moving the needle.
“People feared him,” one lawmaker familiar with the rise of Reddy noted.
Everything changed two months ago, though, when Reddy shifted gears – deciding to dilute his expanding influence over a branch of government that wields actual power for a long shot bid to occupy a branch of government that is essentially ceremonial.
“Instead of pushing the pedal to the floor on DOGE SC… Reddy called an ill-advised audible, announcing the entity had been absorbed into his campaign for South Carolina’s constitutionally neutered governor’s office.” I noted. “In other words, at the very moment Reddy was poised to exert potentially decisive influence over the Palmetto State’s legislative tyranny – he abandoned the field and launched a vanity campaign for an exceedingly weak constitutional office.”
Reddy launched his gubernatorial campaign on March 16, 2026. Since then, industry sources tell us he has spent an estimated $4.1 million on broadcast, cable, satellite and streaming media. In addition to this amount – which eclipses all other campaigns and constitutes an estimated one-fifth of the total spending in this election – Reddy has likely spent hundreds of thousands of additional dollars on social media, mailings, staffers, events and other campaign expenses.
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RELATED | HOW ROM REDDY SOLD OUT
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We will get a firmer sense of Reddy’s total investment in his candidacy in the coming weeks as pre-election campaign finance reports are due to the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC), but for now the question remains… what has this massive investment gotten him?
Last week, Reddy’s campaign touted his supposed surge in the polls – alleged momentum purportedly pushing him into third place in the six-candidate field. According to that survey, produced by Reddy’s campaign, the wealthy Indian-Italian was receiving 13.1% of the vote – trailing only four-term attorney general Alan Wilson (14.7%) and first district congresswoman Nancy Mace (13.7%) – and narrowly leading lieutenant governor Pamela Evette (12.5%) and fifth district congressman Ralph Norman (12.1%).
Were those numbers legitimate? No… at least not according to an independent strategist who surveyed the 2026 South Carolina gubernatorial field last week.
According to the strategist, who promised to come on our program soon to share their full results, methodology and analysis, Reddy is currently in fifth place in the race with a modest 8.8% of the vote – putting him well behind Wilson, Mace, Evette and Norman.
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“He’s spent more than $4 million to poll six points ahead of Josh Kimbrell,” the strategist said, referring to the embattled state senator who has consistently lagged behind the field in this contest.
The strategist added that while Reddy continued to lag well behind the four frontrunners in terms of name identification (i.e. the number of voters who know who he is), the percentage of voters who have a negative impression of him has climbed along with his expanded profile.
“For every GOP primary voter who knows and likes him, there’s a GOP primary voter who knows him and does not like him,” the strategist said.
That’s consistent with early independent polling on Reddy’s nascent candidacy from late March.
So… does Reddy have a path to victory with just twenty (20) days remaining until the GOP primary election?
The strategist we spoke with declined to rule anyone out at this stage of the race, noting that an estimated 29.5% of the GOP electorate remained undecided. But he cautioned that the weak return on Reddy’s initial investment – and his comparatively high unfavorables – did not bode well for picking up a significant chunk of those undecided voters.
“A fool and his money are soon parted,” the timeless proverb warns us.
Does that proverb apply to Reddy? Based on these numbers, it would appear so…
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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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