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by WILL FOLKS
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Across the state of South Carolina today (June 9, 2026), tens of thousands of voters are headed to the polls to cast their ballots in the Palmetto State’s pivotal partisan primary elections.
As we await their verdicts, though, it’s important to remember more than 300,000 South Carolinians – most of them Democrats – have already cast their ballots. Early voting has exploded this year, as we noted in this analysis.
While we don’t yet know how these ballots will fall, a source tracking the race leaked us a poll of early voting Republicans that was reportedly conducted by Starboard Communications, a Lexington, S.C.-based firm run by veteran strategist Walter Whetsell.
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To recap: 131,574 South Carolinians – or 41.2% of early voters – participated in the GOP primary election during the early voting period that ran from May 26 through June 5, 2026. Based on the prior two statewide election cycles, that would constitute an estimated 35.7% of the total GOP primary electorate.
Per Whetsell’s polling, 27.5% of these early voting Republicans backed four-term attorney general Alan Wilson – while 21.5% supported Lowcountry multi-millionaire Rom Reddy. Lieutenant governor Pamela Evette was not far behind at 18.9% followed by fifth district congressman Ralph Norman (17%) and first district congresswoman Nancy Mace (10%).
Those of you hip to addition are likely noting that those totals do not equal 100%. That’s because a very small percentage of respondents either declined to say who they supported or – get this – couldn’t remember.
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To be clear: these are not exit polls from today’s voting. According to our sources, these were the results of a Starboard survey of roughly 500 Republicans who participated in early voting over the previous two weeks.
If these numbers were to hold, Wilson would face Reddy in a runoff election on June 23, 2026. However, with as many as 220,000 to 250,000 GOP votes currently being cast, it is way too early to know for sure whether the early voting Republican electorate bears any resemblance to the GOP voters who show up on the day of the race to cast their ballots.
In other words, all five of the Republicans currently in the race have a path to victory.
In South Carolina, if no candidate claims a majority of votes on the first ballot – a veritable certainty in such a crowded GOP governor’s race – a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026).
For the better part of the past three decades, the GOP gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina has been the equivalent of punching one’s ticket to the governor’s mansion – as no Democrat has won a top-of-the-ticket statewide race since 1998. That streak is unlikely to break in 2026, although Democrats are poised for a much better election cycle than many suspect.
We’ll know for sure tonight which two GOP candidates will live to fight another day… just as we will know for sure which two Democrats advance to the runoff round to vie for their party’s nomination.
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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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SOUND OFF…
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1 comment
People routinely lie to pollsters. Wilson will walk away with the vote today. He MAY be drawn into a runoff but I doubt it. Early voters are almost always “specific issue” voters who have a favorite candidate or issue that they’re voting for.