Pamela Evette Blasts Alan Wilson

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by WILL FOLKS

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As was foretold, it didn’t take long for the gloves to come off in the Republican runoff for governor of South Carolina – a race which has determined the occupant of the Palmetto State governor’s mansion in every single election this millennium.

While the state’s Ohio-born lieutenant governor Pamela Evette finished first in this week’s primary election, enjoys the endorsement of president Donald Trump and remains the runaway favorite to win the nomination according to the prediction markets… it was surprisingly her campaign that went on the offensive.

Evette’s blistering broadsides harkened back to a quarter-century ago, when another sitting lieutenant governor – Bob Peeler – went hard negative in the GOP runoff election against then-congressman Mark Sanford.

Peeler’s negative attacks backfired – and Sanford won the runoff by twenty points.

Evette and her supporters are currently assailing attorney general Alan Wilson, who finished a close second in Tuesday’s voting. In an advertisement released by her campaign, Evette attacked Wilson as a “corrupt, self-dealing career politician” – one who doubled his taxpayer-funded salary and allegedly doled out “tax dollars to pay off his friends.”

Take a look…

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While South Carolina families struggle to make ends meet, corrupt, self-dealing career politician Alan Wilson is cashing in.

? Wilson more than DOUBLED his taxpayer-funded salary, accepting a 126% pay raise.

? Wilson used your tax dollars to pay off his friends, giving $70… pic.twitter.com/V0a1mtsqgw

— Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (@PamelaEvette) June 11, 2026

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Evette’s Democrat lieutenant gubernatorial opponent in the 2018 election, former state representative Mandy Powers Norrell, rebuked the claim that Wilson had raised his pay.

“I was on the subcommittee for this alleged ‘pay raise,’” Norrell noted. “Alan Wilson didn’t ask for increased salary. We forced it on him and many other agency heads because they were making so much less than people they supervised. They had no say in it at all.”

Norrell claimed Evette’s allegation had “zero basis in truth.”

Norrell’s statement was echoed by Burnie Maybank, who served on the commission that ultimately authorized the executive branch pay raises – including Wilson’s salary increase.

“We selected Wilson’s salary without asking or receiving any input from him; we set salaries based upon a variety of factors, including size of the agency; salaries of agency heads for similar agencies and what attorney generals are paid in other southeastern states,” Maybank told us, adding “Wilson was getting paid less than second- or third-year associates at the major law firms.”

As for the alleged pay-to-play allegations against Wilson, we have previously covered them – noting that while his decision was validated by the state supreme court “we fully expect one or more of his rivals to seize upon those negative optics.”

Wilson’s campaign accused Evette of lying to deflect attention away from her underwhelming performance after receiving Trump’s endorsement.

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“Pam is the worst performing Trump-endorsed candidate in history and is scrambling,” Wilson deputy campaign manager Claire Brady responded. “She’s lying about Wilson, again, but she doesn’t care about the truth. What does she have to say about her husband, who runs her business, defrauding his business partners?”

That’s a reference to our reporting from last summer – in which it was revealed David Evette admitted “diverting company funds into my personal account.”

“I knew that it was wrong and I felt bad about it,” Evette said at the time.

“Pam Evette has a problem with the truth,” Brady continued. “She is scared of her liberal record on DEI and will do anything to distract from it. Alan Wilson is focused on South Carolina families. She’s focused on herself.”

Team Evette wasn’t done coming after Wilson, though. At a press conference on the steps of the S.C. State House, her top four legislative supporters – state representatives Case Brittain, Gil Gatch, Melissa Oremus and James Teeple – slammed Wilson for supporting the judicial candidacy of liberal former S.C. minority leader James Smith.

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“When he called, he said he stood in the trenches with James Smith,” Oremus said. “(He said) he was a great guy. He wouldn’t recommend anybody more to serve on the bench than James Smith… and when I found out what this man stood for, I was flabbergasted. And I could not believe somebody that stood for pro-life issues or claimed to would advocate for such a horrible human being that is completely opposite of who I am and what I stand for.”

Brady pushed back at the criticism from these pro-Evette lawmakers, accusing them of auditioning for the No. 2 position in an aspirational Evette administration.

“The McMaster-Evette administration stood by for years and allowed the outdated, status quo process of electing judges to continue,” Brady said. “Many of her legislative endorsements actively opposed previous judicial reform bills. Now when politically convenient, and in an audition to be Pam’s running mate, they strike a different tune. Wilson led the charge on judicial reform for years. Smith met the legal qualifications to serve on the bench and was a safer alternative to the other candidate who was also a Democrat.”

Brady added that the GOP-controlled legislature’s refusal to nominate a conservative judicial candidate was “a prime example of why Wilson has fought to reform the system: the legislature only advanced two candidates to be considered – both Democrats.”

“We would have appreciated Pam’s legislators support for judicial reform years ago,” Brady noted.

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While Evette and her surrogates were hammering away at the state’s top prosecutor, he kept his messaging mostly positive.

“Since Tuesday, we’ve welcomed an overwhelming number of new supporters to Team Wilson,” the attorney general noted on social media. “Many may have supported another candidate during the primary, but now we’re united around a common goal.”

Wilson referred to the claims from the Evette campaign as “mudslinging and baseless,” prior to detailing his agenda for the upcoming head-to-head election.

“South Carolina deserves a governor with a record of results and a vision to shake up the status quo and put families first,” Wilson said.

Wilson and Evette are scheduled to debate in Conway, S.C. next Tuesday (June 16, 2026) with early voting set to start the following day. Early voting will be held on June 17-18 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT. The runoff election is set for Tuesday June 23, 2026, with the winner advancing to face Democrat Jermaine Johnson in the general election in November.

Any registered voter who did not participate in the Democrat primary election on Tuesday is eligible to vote in the Republican runoff.

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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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