Crossroads 2026: Alan Wilson, Pamela Evette Rumble on the Coast

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by MARK POWELL

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Drag queens… accusations of lying… and audience that was straight out of the Jerry Springer Show.

And all that was in the first few minutes…

Such was the verbal slugfest of Tuesday evening’s South Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidates’ debate at Coastal Carolina University in Conway. It was the one and only time when two-term lieutenant governor Pamela Evette and four-term attorney general Alan Wilson were scheduled to go head-to-head before next Tuesday’s runoff election for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And the exchange delivered all the drama the three previous debates (four, if you count the sparsely watched SCETV event that half the GOP field skipped) so painfully lacked.

Two facts quickly became apparent at the outset. First, that Evette’s supporters dominated the night with wild applause for her repeated and booing of Wilson. And second, that moderator Justin Dougherty of Fox Carolina was playing out of his league, as demonstrated by his utter inability to keep attendees in check.

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RELATED | A ‘CO-ENDORSEMENT?’

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Conway is in the Grand Strand, of course, which is Evette’s base of support. So it wasn’t surprising the audience was clearly skewed in her favor. However, the extensive repeated jeering and shouting at Wilson carried a vibe more commonly associated with a WWF title championship match than a political debate.

Those looking for a slugfest between the last two candidates left standing weren’t disappointed.

It started tamely enough, with each candidate using their opening statement to appeal to voters who had previously supported other candidates. The first question was all about endorsements, with Evette once again touting hers from president Donald Trump and Wilson countering that he’s backed by more than 80% of the state’s sheriffs along with three of their former gubernatorial rivals – state senator Josh Kimbrell, first district congresswoman Nancy Mace, and fifth district congressman Ralph Norman.

After a quick break, there were predictable questions about roads and tort reform, with predictable answers from both. But it was the fourth question, coming eighteen minutes into the conversation, when all hell broke loose. And it came, curiously enough, following a seemingly benign query about legalizing casino gaming for economic development. 

Evette said counties should vote and decide the matter for themselves. Wilson used the issue to point out Evette’s repeated debate dodges…

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“Well, this is the second time I’ve been asked this question,” he said. “I was asked in the first debate, a debate the lieutenant governor wasn’t able to make it to…”

That remark triggered an avalanche of booing and hissing, but Wilson was just getting warmed up.

“I’m sure that there were people out here who used to support me, who were very pro casino, who were going to be doubling down and funneling lots of money to negative commercials against me this week, lying about me through the lieutenant governor’s campaign,” Wilson said. “That’s fine. That’s politics.” 

And with that, it was on like Donkey Kong.

“This is the rantings of a true career politician,” she responded. “When somebody is talking facts about your record, if you want to talk, the attorney general took a 126% pay increase during the last eight years, the same pay increase the governor and I turned down. That’s facts. Mudslinging comes when the attorney general and his PACs people put me on a television screen with drag queens. I have never met a drag queen. I’ve never met AOC. And for the record, I’ve never taken a lie detector test.”

That’s a reference to a previous advertisement from a political action committee supporting Wilson’s candidacy…

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?? New #Crossroads2026 ad BLASTS @PamelaEvette in South Carolina governor's race… pic.twitter.com/hwsJOK9k2x

— FITSNews (@fitsnews) May 20, 2026

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“Pam, you may not have taken a lie detector test, but you certainly lie a lot,” Wilson retorted. “The 126% pay which you’re talking about, that was a law that governor McMaster passed. Ladies and gentlemen, she’s lying to you to manipulate you, because this was a law that the governor signed… that was given by the state commission that determined salaries.”

Greeted with a fresh round of boos, Wilson directly addressed the camera.

“They’re bullying me, not giving me a chance to talk to you, the people South Carolina,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen at home, I became a career prosecutor because I wanted to be in public service. I have a wife and children in the front row, and I decided that I wanted to go into public service. I did not make millions of dollars selling DEI products to businesses in South Carolina. The fact of the matter is that I did not give myself a pay increase. That was done by a statute that the governor set that was determined by the agency head salary commission.’

“You know, when I first got into public service, I never could understand what people meant when they said, If Alan Wilson’s lips are moving, he’s lying,’ Evette fired back. “He knows full well that I did not profit from DEI.”

Really?

Dougherty was eventually able to move the conversation on to other matters – and a kind of shaky ceasefire ensued during which the candidates were peppered with questions on topics like judicial selection, violent crime, and school choice.

But tempers flared once again when the subject turned to a legislative proposal to block S.C. State University (SCSU) from receiving $5 million in state funding. Evette, who became embroiled in a nasty spat earlier this spring when the historically black university withdrew its invitation to her to be its commencement speaker, supports. Wilson, while opposing what he sees as liberal indoctrination on the taxpayer’s dime, opposes it on free speech grounds.

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Conservatives should never be afraid of free speech.

I'll always fight back against efforts to suppress conservative voices on our college campuses, but I won't punish students simply because they disagree with me.

A Governor must rise above the politics and govern for all… pic.twitter.com/t1DggQ2Vms

— Alan Wilson (@AGAlanWilson) June 17, 2026

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“Lieutenant governor, I was honestly disappointed that you were getting down in the mud, mixing it up with college kids,” he said. “A governor has to rise above it. A governor has to be the governor for all people. Yes, we can oppose suppressing conservative speech on campuses; but stripping it of money because they don’t like you or uninvited you, that’s not what a governor’s supposed to do. We can do better than that, and as governor, I will be a governor for all people, and we will protect conservative speech, but we will also protect speech we don’t agree with.”

“Obviously the attorney general missed the whole point,” Evette responded. “Free speech is speech for all. But the only speech that’s being stopped on college campuses or is conservative speech. And I really think what the attorney general was upset with is probably the hundreds of thousands of dollars he spent trying to lie to the voters, that I was somehow a DEI queen, was squelched in thirty seconds with those students at SC State.”

“There she goes,” Wilson fired back. “She’s lying again, folks. It’s just more the same. I mean, first off, Pam, we have the receipts, and we can put it out on the internet. It’s there. Your company did sell DEI products before you became lieutenant governor. Something you did. And, Pam, you keep misrepresenting the truth. You’ve lied time and time again. You actually sent out a flyer to thousands, tens, hundreds of thousands of people saying that you signed constitutional carry into law to protect the Second Amendment. Did you sign a bill into law, lieutenant governor, or not? Please answer that for the people. I’ll give you the next couple of seconds. Go!”

“Well, I owned a payroll HR company, so while I was trying to keep my clients from getting fined, from horrible regulations that were coming out of D.C., that’s what I did,” Evette responded. “So as I was out there protecting small and medium-sized businesses and running my own, if the attorney general was really so upset with DEI, he should have been trying to fight it from his office and not letting it impact the small businesses here in South Carolina.”

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RELATED | WILSON: PUTTING FAMILIES, AFFORDABILITY FIRST

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“You never answered the question: did you sign a bill into law?” Wilson pushed. “You also said that you personally, you single-handedly kept sanctuary cities out of South Carolina, and you personally kept men out of women’s sports. I’m the one in the lawsuit right now protecting that. Again, are you going to answer the question? Did you sign a bill into law? Did you personally keep sanctuary cities out of South Carolina?”

Evette then went on to take credit for a victory that was actually secured by Mace – who led the effort to oust former Charleston County sheriff Kristin Graziano.

“First of all, I said it was the people of Charleston,” Evette said. “They kicked out of a sanctuary city sheriff. That’s what I said. The governor and I together are a team. I understand, you don’t get that. But we are. So when it was signed into law, it was signed by the McMaster-Evette Administration. So stop lying to these people.”

The conversation then turned to eliminating the state income tax, followed by a discussion of medicinal marijuana and healthcare freedom. Things seemingly simmered down for what should have been a harmless note on which to wrap things up: the obligatory request from the moderator for each candidate to “say something nice about your opponent.”

“I do respect Alan Wilson’s service to our country,” Evette said. “Thank you, Alan, for your service.”

“I do not see the lieutenant governor as my enemy,” Wilson said. “She is my political competitor right now… I’ve seen her be an incredible wife to her husband, David. I think she’s an amazing mother to her children, and I think she’s a very strong family person.”

But Wilson did manage to work in a parting zinger…

“I do believe Pam loves the state of South Carolina,” he said. “She chose to move here from Ohio because she saw opportunity here. And I commend her for that.”

The dig apparently got under Evette’s skin, because she brought it up in her closing statement.

“First off, I want to take the beginning of this to address that backhanded comment that the attorney general just made to me,” Evette said. “He’s finally telling the truth up here. I didn’t hit the lottery to be born in South Carolina, but I raised my family here. I grew my business here. I created jobs here. And I left a thriving business to be your lieutenant governor. So to all the people like myself, who didn’t hit that lottery of being born here, you just heard the attorney general tell you, you’re really not a South Carolinian.”

When Dougherty finally said goodnight, the handshake Evette and Wilson exchanged was exceptionally brief and coolly perfunctory.

And both sides quickly declared victory…

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WILSON WINS.

Thank you, South Carolina. I made the case for a stronger, safer, and more conservative future, and I'm ready to finish the job.

Early voting starts tomorrow and Thursday from 8:30 AM to 5 PM. Runoff Day is June 23.

Let's finish the job. pic.twitter.com/PrapfHWDOK

— Alan Wilson (@AGAlanWilson) June 16, 2026

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South Carolina is ready for bold leadership that will keep our conservative success going. Thank you to everyone who watched tonight’s debate and to the supporters across our state! Let's go win this race! ?? pic.twitter.com/fpzKMJ6o91

— Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (@PamelaEvette) June 17, 2026

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With closing arguments having been made, early voting is now underway – running from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT today and then again on Thursday (June 18, 2026). The runoff election is set for next Tuesday with the winner facing Democrat Jermaine Johnson in the general election in November.

As we’ve often noted, the GOP primary has been decisive in recent decades – with no Democrat winning a top-of-the-ticket statewide race since 1998.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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