How Rom Reddy Sold Out South Carolina’s Reform Movement

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by WILL FOLKS

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There’s plenty of wisdom to be found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe‘s famed Faust, but my favorite line has always been one attributed to Mephistopheles.

“If I wasn’t a devil myself I’d give me up to the Devil this very minute,” he said.

Like Sir John Harington‘s famed observation that “treason doth never prosper,” it’s a perfect encapsulation of the inherent hypocrisy and lack of accountability associated with those who practice to deceive.

And sadly here in the Palmetto State, such deceivers are legion…

In previous posts, I’ve discussed the dubious logistics associated with South Carolina multimillionaire Rom Reddy‘s recent abandonment of the conservative movement he founded. I’ve also addressed Reddy’s decision to dissolve his formerly robust DOGE SC organization in favor of a Quixotic bid for governor of the Palmetto State – and what a terrible return on investment that will be (even if Reddy wins).

Reddy was moving the needle – or appeared to be moving the needle – within the all-powerful legislative branch of government in the Palmetto State, advancing substantive reform policy and pledging his vast personal fortune to change the ideological composition of the notoriously left-leaning S.C. General Assembly. His stated goal was a noble one – shifting power and capital from government back to the people.

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This fundamental objective – the expansion of freedom and free markets at the expense of superfluous bureaucracy and crony capitalism – has been at the core of FITSNews‘ fiscally conservative, socially libertarian mission for nearly two decades. Assuming it ever happens, it would be a critical component of reversing the Palmetto State’s chronic economic anemia, costly academic lethargy and pervasive culture of inefficiency.

It’s never going to happen, though, if faux altruists like Reddy – who claim they don’t care who gets the credit for things – become obsessed with it (and the perceived power, passing prestige and cults of personality that go with it).

Instead of pushing the pedal to the floor on DOGE SC – his so-called “Palmetto Revolution” – Reddy called an ill-advised audible last month, announcing the entity had been absorbed into his campaign for South Carolina’s constitutionally neutered governor’s office. 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 (one that’s getting weaker with each passing day).

“The only thing that would make him more irrelevant than running for governor is actually becoming governor,” one of Reddy’s earliest supporters told us when informed of his aspirations.

That’s a reference to the Constitution of 1895, which made governors in South Carolina little more than figureheads over a small sliver of the executive branch.

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“In South Carolina, lawmakers run it all,” I noted. “They control their branch of government, the judicial branch and most of the executive branch, too.”

Governors? They can veto bills and bang their fists on the podium. That’s it.

“Why would someone dilute their growing influence over a branch of government that wields real power for control of one that has very little?” I asked.

To answer that question, we must undertake an assessment of the mutually beneficial political bromance that has blossomed between Reddy and powerful S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith. While Reddy rages on the campaign trail against the “political ruling class” – and torches the out-of-touch “elites” who have run the Palmetto State into the ground – he maintains surprisingly harmonious relations with Smith, the undisputed king of the ruling class he so vociferously assails.

Reddy and Smith not only share the same taste in fine wines (and mirrored moral malleability), they also share the same political strategist – an unscrupulous Svengali who in the last six weeks alone has made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of Reddy’s fifth-place gubernatorial bid (while being paid tens of thousands of dollars from Smith on the side).

The connective tissue between Reddy and Smith when it comes to coordinated political strategy is certainly worth considering – but the real story of their relationship would appear to be the mutually beneficial ends it advanced.

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As we previously reported, Reddy’s DOGE SC movement was in the process of shifting paradigms in a big way at the S.C. State House – advancing a substantive judicial reform bill through the S.C. House of Representatives and preparing (it seemed) to make a major impact in the 2026 legislative primary elections.

Reddy’s operatives were identifying House districts with vulnerable incumbents, recruiting challengers to run against them and pledging massive amounts of cash to support their insurgent candidacies. Dozens of seats were in play – and DOGE SC’s involvement in those races could have dramatically shifted the balance of power away from Smith’s establishment allies and moved it toward citizen-first legislators who embraced the finer points of the “Palmetto Revolution.”

For the first time in decades in South Carolina, the stage seemed set for a real realignment of power. And a long-overdue one, at that.

Make no mistake: Smith and his uni-party allies in the legislature are the embodiment of everything DOGE SC purportedly opposed: reckless spending, neglect of core functions, rampant crony capitalism and unchecked corruption. Rather than fight these battles in the legislative trenches, though – equipping the reform movement with additional foot soldiers for the forthcoming siege – Reddy walked away, ceding the field to Smith and the uni-party at the most pivotal point in the process.

Just when pro-citizen candidates needed his support, Reddy left them high and dry – pulling the plug on his legislative efforts and cannibalizing DOGE SC’s infrastructure for his gubernatorial bid.

“At the very moment DOGE SC was needed most, it disappeared,” I noted at the time.

The timing of Reddy’s betrayal – just as candidates were filing for public office – was a knife in the back for supporters of his movement and the broader push for reform in the Palmetto State. Conversely, it was absolute boon for Smith and the status quo interests supporting him. Numerous reform-minded citizens coaxed into campaigning against Smith’s legislative supremacy saw their candidacies completely cut off at the knees – while those who had planned on entering the arena with assurances from Reddy and his team found themselves totally hung out to dry.

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Multiple candidates for the S.C. House of Representatives have confirmed Reddy reneged on his promises to help them financially during the upcoming election cycle – saying they were “blindsided” by his decision to run for governor.

“He said he knelt before God, not government,” one member of the fiscally conservative S.C. Freedom Caucus told us recently. “Come to find out the whole time he was on his knees for Murrell Smith.”

Meanwhile, Smith gave up absolutely nothing to watch Reddy swallow up his political opposition… gift-wrapping the Lowcountry multi-millionaire with a “half-victory” on a judicial reform bill that both men knew wasn’t ever going to become law.

Was that the plan all along?

Did Smith agree to jumpstart the Reddy for governor campaign in exchange for Reddy protecting Smith’s exposed right flank?

If so, it was diabolically brilliant. Positively Svengalian. Oh… and perfectly executed.

The House’s passage of the judicial reform bill put Reddy on the political map – although we (and others) noted at the time this victory was likely to be short-lived given the recalcitrance of the S.C. Senate, whose members are not up for reelection in 2026. Not surprisingly, Senators have done exactly as we expected – blocking the reform bill from advancing.

Smith knew all along this would happen… as did Reddy. But rather than challenging this obstructionism, Reddy is leveraging it for his own ego and ambition.

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“The DOGE SC judicial reform bill is being held up by a handful of Senate leaders… which is exactly why Reddy’s abandoned crusade against the corrupt legislative state was so vital,” we noted a month ago.

A month later the bill is still going nowhere… but Reddy is no longer in a position to apply meaningful pressure on its behalf. Instead, he is spending millions of dollars in the hopes of purchasing an office that won’t be able to do a damn thing about it.

He’s also failing on a more personal level. Earlier this week, we published a provocative guest column from Allison Shoemaker, a woman who has been royally screwed over by South Carolina’s family court system (another issue Reddy’s DOGE SC movement once sought to address).

In fact, Murrell Smith was the attorney who screwed her over.

On the morning of April 2, 2026 – two weeks after Reddy formally entered the race – Shoemaker called Reddy’s campaign office seeking assistance. The staffer who took her call reportedly said her plight “1000 percent fits into what we’re talking about” but that “right now is a really vulnerable time for Rom and he’s not going to go against Murrell.”

“If you had contacted us back in January or February before he announced he was running we would have 100 percent gotten somebody on this,” the staffer allegedly told Shoemaker, referring to her case. “But at this point, now that he’s announced he’s running… he’s not going to be able to be of much use to you.”

She’s not alone…

Reddy makes his first appearance at a Republican gubernatorial debate in Charleston, S.C. this evening, a forum at which he has pledged to “speak directly to the people.”

“They deserve real answers and real accountability,” Reddy insists.

In that case, Reddy should hold himself accountable – and answer why he betrayed everything he purportedly stands for as part of an apparent Faustian bargain with the very forces he claims to oppose. Until he answers that question, no one should take his vanity campaign seriously.

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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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