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by WILL FOLKS
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This media outlet has already extensively covered Lowcountry multi-millionaire Rom Reddy‘s betrayal of the conservative cause in South Carolina – notably his abandonment of a robust reform movement aimed at reshaping the all-powerful legislative branch of government in exchange for a Quixotic candidacy for governor.
I’ve also extensively documented the fiscal folly of his ill-conceived campaign to control the Palmetto State’s constitutionally neutered executive branch of government – one of the weakest chief executive offices in the entire nation.
Even if Reddy had succeeded in his campaign for governor of South Carolina… he would have failed.
Even if he had won the GOP gubernatorial nomination outright, he would have been resigned to four years of tilting at windmills as opposed to potentially pulling the levers of legislative power.
“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,” I noted months ago.
Well, Reddy’s vanity candidacy flopped… spectacularly.
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Despite some polls showing him with a potential path to victory, the diminutive Indian-Italian finished a distant fourth in yesterday’s GOP gubernatorial primary – drawing an anemic 14.1% of the vote.
Reddy’s disappointing finish was particularly painful for fifth district congressman Ralph Norman, a fiscal conservative and Freedom Caucus leader who finished third in the race with 17.1%.
Had Reddy not eaten into Norman’s share of the vote – and viciously attacked him via a deceptive media campaign orchestrated by his establishment Svengali, Wes Donehue – Norman would have likely qualified for the runoff election.
But that’s not the real damage Reddy did during this election cycle…
In addition to splitting the fiscal conservative, pro-reform vote in the governor’s race, Reddy’s abandonment of his once-formidable DOGE SC organization left numerous legislative wins on the table. As such, a golden opportunity to expand the ranks of pro-freedom, pro-free market leaders at the S.C. State House – which is currently controlled by trial lawyers – was squandered.
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RELATED | EVETTE, WILSON ADVANCE TO RUNOFF
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While the S.C. Freedom Caucus successfully defended all of its seats in the S.C. House of Representatives – and appears to have even picked up a seat or two – this could have been an absolute wave election for the anti-establishment forces in Columbia, S.C. Had Reddy’s DOGE SC movement fulfilled its promise to recruit and fund credible challengers to vulnerable incumbents, Freedom Caucus members and like-minded candidates could have easily picked up a dozen seats.
Maybe more…
And had that happened, the face of the corrupt legislative state in South Carolina – led by Reddy’s close friend, House speaker Murrell Smith – would have been fundamentally and forever changed.
Instead, though, Reddy “absorbed” DOGE SC into his failed gubernatorial bid – leaving numerous challengers to uni-party lawmakers to wither on the vine.
“Reddy drew leaders of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus into his orbit by presenting himself as someone who believed in our principles and wanted to help us grow our numbers,” Freedom Caucus leader Joe White wrote last month. “He later aligned himself with members of the Columbia political establishment.”
He also spent like crazy (literally) to join that establishment…
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Through yesterday morning (June 9, 2026), Reddy spent a staggering $6.2 million on broadcast, cable, satellite and streaming advertisements in support of his governor’s race – far more than any other candidate. Most of that money was spent introducing Reddy as a candidate to voters – but a big chunk of it was spent slamming Norman.
Imagine if Reddy’s millions had been spent intelligently and strategically in support of his stated goal of returning “power and money back to the people?”
Like Reddy originally said he was going to do…
Hell, imagine if only half of it had been devoted to that goal? Or even a quarter of it?
Freedom Caucus leaders have privately told us of numerous S.C. House districts where Reddy promised to help conservative candidates but later “reneged to run for governor.” And that doesn’t even contemplate all the potentially credible challenges that were never explored when Reddy abruptly changed gears three months ago.
“You have no right to tell me what I do with my money,” Reddy barked at this author on social media on election day. “If you liked the mission so much, use your money and go for it.”
So… was Reddy’s grand deception all about his ego? Or was there something more nefarious at play?
Considering his Svengali Donehue was receiving tens of thousands of dollars from speaker Smith at the same time he was advising his short (and short-tempered) gubernatorial client, there’s no shortage of speculation as to what may have really motivated Reddy’s folly.
Whatever machinations may have been at play, this much is clear: Reddy is finished as a political candidate. More importantly, no one who truly believes in restoring power and freedom to the people of South Carolina will ever trust him again.
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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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21 comments
Will, Will, Will – “…the diminutive Indian-Italian …” -PUH-LEASE!! First, the description is apropos nothing. Second, take some advice from Elsa/”Frozen” – just let it go! I normally enjoy your acerbic commentary, but this comes off as ad hominem over-reach.
But take heart – I’m NOT cancelling my subscription.
Alas, Reddy appears to be another in a long line of wealthy conservative businessmen who try to change the system but then turn it into a vanity project. Folks is absolutely right. Until the grossly asymmetrical legal status of the Legislature is altered to produce a truly constitutionally balanced government with independent and co-equal branches of the government and ethical accountability in the Legislature, the governorship and the judiciary will just be “step-n-fetch-its” for the 6-8 most powerful people in the legislature. Remember: the General Assembly exempts itself from the very laws it created to make the executive branch subject to independent ethics oversite, provide transparency under FOIA, ensure proper and fair procurement procedures, prevent nepotism and incompetence in state employment, protect whistleblowers exposing corruption, and the protect the jobs of conscientious state employees who refuse to engage in dirty politics. They can lie and slander private persons as well as executive and judicial branch officials with zero legal repercussions because of their extremely broad legislative immunity. About the only thing that can take down a corrupt legislator is the federal government on RICO and corruption charges, with a state prosector doing it perhaps once every 30 years.
Really, I don’t know what rock you people have been living under. Can you imagine the Party of Trump doing any of those things? My God, look at what is happening in Washington. Both remaining Republican candidates are pledging undying loyalty to a convicted felon who is stealing everything he and his family can get their hands on, while putting incompetent cronies loyal only to him in charge of everything and covering up corruption. The man sells pardons, gives government contracts to his family and people who give him money, and fires anyone who dares to call him out or disagree with him. This is what is left of the Republican Party. Change horses or live with it.
This!
What about the AG race. The darling of the trial lawyer lobby, Goldfinch, will turn the office into a money making machine for trial lawyers at a level that would make even Allen Wilson blush. Pray Stumbo can beat him in the runoff
Veni — the AG’s office has always been a money-making machine for trial lawyers. It will continue to be regardless of who wins the race. If you want a candidate that will also kow-tow to the Freedom Caucus and will do what he’s told, elect Stumbo. If you want someone who can manage the many responsibilities of the AG (prosecution is a very small part of what they do), elect Goldfinch. Maybe Goldfinch will return it to running like a prestigious law practice instead of the college party and political campaign machine that it has become.
At the risk of eliciting a verbally violent reply from Balaboosta, I would notice that Stumbo said something important in the debate. Whether he follows-up on it if elected is another matter.
The important thing is that he will develop an in-house civil litigation department rather than farming out the state’s civil work to private lawyers.
That part of South Carolina’s attorney general’s office has long been a peculiarity and not a best-kept secret either. When I spoke to Mark Sanford about it in one of his meet-the-public Wednesdays, he called it a slush fund for politicians.
That means private lawyers who get the state’s business farmed out to them turn around and use part of the proceeds of that business plowed into campaign donations; and many powerful politicians and judges cycled through that system.
Another peculiarity of South Carolina’s AG’s office is that it does not have a conviction integrity unit or any mechanism to NEUTRALLY review claims of actual innocence. To the contrary, South Carolina’s AG’s office views his role as opposing all post-conviction relief claims right or wrong. That is also a money-making machine for the small fish who are the state-appointed PCR lawyers many of whom are actually graduates of SCAG’s PCR opposition section.
State’s lawyers, whether regular employees or privately-contracted, are supposed to be THE EXCEPTION to the adversary system. Their aim should be to see that justice is done, not just to win.
But that ideal is long lost, along with the ideal that elected officials should be servants of the people, not their masters.
“Verbally violent”??? No threats were ever made to you.
Matthew 5:22: “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, ‘Thou fool,’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
Matthew 5:22: “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, ‘Thou fool,’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
At the risk of eliciting a verbally violent reply from Balaboosta, I would notice that Stumbo said something important in the debate. Whether he follows-up on it if elected is another matter.
The important thing is that he will develop an in-house civil litigation department rather than farming out the state’s civil work to private lawyers.
That part of South Carolina’s attorney general’s office has long been a peculiarity and not a best-kept secret either. When I spoke to Mark Sanford about it in one of his meet-the-public Wednesdays, he called it a slush fund for politicians.
That means private lawyers who get the state’s business farmed out to them turn around and use part of the proceeds of that business plowed into campaign donations; and many powerful politicians and judges cycled through that system.
Another peculiarity of South Carolina’s AG’s office is that it does not have a conviction integrity unit or any mechanism to NEUTRALLY review claims of actual innocence. To the contrary, South Carolina’s AG’s office views his role as opposing all post-conviction relief claims right or wrong. That is also a money-making machine for the small fish who are the state-appointed PCR lawyers many of whom are actually graduates of SCAG’s PCR opposition section.
State’s lawyers, whether regular employees or privately-contracted, are supposed to be THE EXCEPTION to the adversary system. Their aim should be to see that justice is done, not just to win.
But that ideal is long lost, along with the ideal that elected officials should be servants of the people, not their masters.
True but Goldfinch IS a trial lawyer while Stumbo is a career prosecutor. Goldfinch is a republican of convenience and enlighten me as to what he has managed that would make him such a great manager and not just a shill for his pals
Great article Will!
Hating on a man for spending his own money as he wishes……odd.
Will Folks is hating on Rom Reddy for NOT spending Rom Reddy’s own money on Will Folks.
Little is odd about that.
Most of those who criticize the government for wasting tax money on this or that really want the government to waste tax money on themselves and their causes instead.
Very few REALLY want the government to save tax money and return it to the tax payers or not take it from the tax payers in the first place.
Isn’t Stumbo the solicitor who refused to prosecute when a 14 year old Kaden Moses was killed? There were 2 people in the room and one is dead. I can’t vote for someone who takes orders from trial lawyers. Will has written about it
That was a case that involved some teenagers in a home loading a rifle and not handling it properly, and the gun discharged and killed the other teen (Moses). There was only two of them in the room at the time, and one of them ended up dead. Some people outside the door gave conflicting or poor descriptions of what they could hear – but they couldn’t see anything. There was no outside evidence that there was any bad blood or dispute between the teenagers. After the incident, there were several civilians that were walking all around the room and the house, and law enforcement did a poor job of preserving the crime scene and gathering evidence, and recorded witness statements were not taken promptly, but weeks later. While reasonable minds can certainly differ on this very messy set of facts and evidence, Stumbo, rightly realizing that you don’t bring an involuntary manslaughter charge on such speculative evidence and a poorly developed forensic work, declined to bring a negligent or recklesss homicide charge. While there certainly was some degree of a grey area surrounding this sad affair, by no means was this a case of him willfully ignoring a solid case. No one who does that job long enough is going to bat 1000 and do every single thing correctly, and even if you did there is a world of differing opinions that would still say you did something wrong. At the end of the day, Stumbo is far superior to Goldfish.
You’re correct. That case was messy and likely would not have brought a guilty verdict from a jury.
Rom Reddy’s ideas will remain; but good riddance to Nancy Mace.
There is such thing as a willing prostitute; and some, perhaps most, do it for sheer greed or to feed addictions.
As far as we know, NONE of Jeffrey Epstein’s “victims” was kidnapped or PHYSICALLY coerced into “service.”
NOT a defense of Jeffrey Epstein, but a realistic analysis of the whole sordid saga and of Nancy Mace’s cynical and hypocritical pushing for the release of the Epstein files under false pretext of defending his “survivors.”
Realistically, it appears that Jeffrey Epstein was more of a cold-eyed spy master than a compulsive pedophile.
The use of sex to extract one warrior’s secrets for the benefit of the opposing camp is as ancient as Delilah pillow-talking Samson into revealing the secret of his strength; and no state intelligence agency of ANY country ever disavowed it.
Perhaps those miffed at Nancy Mace’s obsession with release of the Epstein files were more worried about revelations of spy rings than sex rings.
And the release of the call wherein Nancy Mace tries to recruit a woman who never thought of herself as raped or as videotaped while being raped after being drugged COMPLETELY eliminates the idea that Nancy Mace is herself a rape survivor who is trying to protect other rape survivors.
A TRUE rape survivor would NOT be pushing other women to confabulate rape stories knowing that it inevitably CHEAPENS the suffering of REAL rape victims and prevents other rape allegations from being taken seriously.
And look at how quickly Nancy Mace threw herself at the feet of Alan Wilson, whom she had accused of being a pedophile-enabler.
That taped phone call trying to manufacture rape cases against Nancy Mace’s former fiance’s business associates is CLEARLY criminal and NOT protected by the speech-and-debate clause. The revelation of that call IF there really is NO VIDEO of the other woman being raped should, in an honest system, subject Nancy Mace to a criminal probe and to expulsion from Congress.
And who, in an honest world, would lead such efforts? Alan Wilson while still SCAG and Joe Wilson while still functioning in Congress after his stroke.
Is it any wonder that Nancy Mace’s concession announcement was preceded by her call “burying the hatchet” with Alan Wilson?
Nancy Mace is not a courageous survivor-protector; she is a cowardly and opportunistic survivor manipulator.
The end of Reddy’s campaign is not the end of Reddy’s ideas or cool non-demagogue style.
But good riddance to Nancy Mace and her flash-for-cash style.
There is such thing as a willing prostitute; and some, perhaps most, do it for sheer greed or to feed addictions.
As far as we know, NONE of Jeffrey Epstein’s “victims” was kidnapped or PHYSICALLY coerced into “service.”
NOT a defense of Jeffrey Epstein, but a realistic analysis of the whole sordid saga and of Nancy Mace’s cynical and hypocritical pushing for the release of the Epstein files under false pretext of defending his “survivors.”
Realistically, it appears that Jeffrey Epstein was more of a cold-eyed spy master than a compulsive pedophile.
The use of sex to extract one warrior’s secrets for the benefit of the opposing camp is as ancient as Delilah pillow-talking Samson into revealing the secret of his strength; and no state intelligence agency of ANY country ever disavowed it.
Perhaps those miffed at Nancy Mace’s obsession with release of the Epstein files were more worried about revelations of spy rings than sex rings.
And the release of the call wherein Nancy Mace tries to recruit a woman who never thought of herself as raped or as videotaped while being raped after being drugged COMPLETELY eliminates the idea that Nancy Mace is herself a rape survivor who is trying to protect other rape survivors.
A TRUE rape survivor would NOT be pushing other women to confabulate rape stories knowing that it inevitably CHEAPENS the suffering of REAL rape victims and prevents other rape allegations from being taken seriously.
And look at how quickly Nancy Mace threw herself at the feet of Alan Wilson, whom she had accused of being a pedophile-enabler.
That taped phone call trying to manufacture rape cases against Nancy Mace’s former fiance’s business associates is CLEARLY criminal and NOT protected by the speech-and-debate clause. The revelation of that call IF there really is NO VIDEO of the other woman being raped should, in an honest system, subject Nancy Mace to a criminal probe and to expulsion from Congress.
And who, in an honest world, would lead such efforts? Alan Wilson while still SCAG and Joe Wilson while still functioning in Congress after his stroke.
Is it any wonder that Nancy Mace’s concession announcement was preceded by her call “burying the hatchet” with Alan Wilson?
Nancy Mace is not a courageous survivor-protector; she is a cowardly and opportunistic survivor manipulator.
Today, Will Folks writes, “Wilson’s advantage stood at 9.4% on the head-to-head ballot – and climbed to 10.8% when voters were informed he had received the endorsement of his erstwhile bitterest rival, first district congresswoman Nancy Mace.”
“climbed”?
The difference between 10.8% and 9.4% is ONLY 1.4%. That is NOT a “climb,” but a shrug, a waffle, a shiver, a drunken shuffle within the margin of error.
And Nancy Mace?
“Nancy Mace
“@NancyMace
Christian. Citadel Grad. Fmr Waffle House Waitress. Member US House. Just got my ass kicked in Governors race. ??
Charleston, SC nancymace.org Joined October 2017{.} 5,178 Following[.] 544.1K Followers”
“Christian”?
My Coptic Orthodox Church just commemorated the 21 martyrs who LITERALLY had their heads cut off by Libyan Islamists for refusing to renounce the Holy Name of Jesus Christ.
I consider Nancy Mace’s use of the name of Christ, not only hypocrisy but blasphemy.
What is “Christian” about Nancy Mace?
As far as I can tell, everything about Nancy Mace is ANTI-Christian: her un-self-aware dangerous drunkenness, her co-habitation without benefit of clergy, her love of money which is the root of all evils, her hatred of the man who loved her and planned to marry her (and apparently of all men), her foul language and fits of rage, and WORST OF ALL her bearing FALSE witness against her neighbor AND recruiting others to do so.
Just listen to her call to Ali Berg, obtained by FITSNews as real journalistic coup and scoop.
That call has PROBABLE evidence of several crimes.
Alan Wilson’s happy acceptance of the Anti-Christian Nancy Mace’s endorsement shows that Alan Wilson prosecutes the innocent and coddles the guilty all for money and votes.
But what is Pam Evette waiting for? Rom Reddy is the natural lieutenant governor choice for her; but it is now or never if she wants to open a dialogue with him and welcome his ideas for government reform.
And what is left of Alan Wilson’s support once voters learn the truth about him, he can take towards his campaign to inherit his adoptive father’s seat in Congress when Joe Wilson realizes the stroke he suffered (genuine prayers for speedy recovery Joe) is incompatible with indefinite service in Congress.