COLUMBIA, S.C. – He wasn’t on the ballot, but President Donald Trump was a winner in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff.
The candidate Trump endorsed, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, defeated Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to capture the GOP nomination in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, the Associated Press reported Tuesday just 26 minutes after the polls closed.
But there was no way Trump could lose in the South Carolina runoff, which was shaping up to be the latest test of Trump’s immense grip over the GOP and the power of his endorsements in Republican nominating contests.
That’s because Trump endorsed both candidates.
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Trump endorsed Evette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Evette finished on top of a crowded field of contenders in the primary election, with Wilson second. The field also included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, as the top two finishers, Evette and Wilson advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after failing to advance to the runoff. And Wilson was also backed a week ago by Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand from Texas.
Trump, meanwhile, made an 11th-hour endorsement on Friday, backing Wilson in addition to his earlier endorsement of Evette, in what appeared to be a move by the president to hedge his bet.
Mace, reacting to Trump’s endorsement of both Evette and Wilson, wrote on social media, “LMAO,” which is a common abbreviation for the phrase “laughing my a– off.”
The runoff between Evette and Wilson became combustible, and in last week’s final debate, both candidates launched personal attacks and accused each other of lying and misrepresenting their records.
Wilson worked to contrast his tenure as attorney general with what he argued is Evette’s largely ceremonial role as lieutenant governor. And he spotlighted his experience as a combat veteran, prosecutor, and the state’s top law enforcement official.
Evette, who was backed by McMaster in February, showcased herself as an outsider and a Trump-endorsed businesswoman, while casting Wilson as a career politician.
“The president had a lot of confidence in me when it was a crowded field, and I won it for him on June 9. I’m going to win it for him again on June 23,” Evette told Fox News Digital on the eve of the runoff. “I have always been very loyal to the president. I’ve traveled wherever he’s asked me to help stump for him, fundraise for him.”
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Wilson, campaigning with Cruz on the eve of the runoff, pointed to Trump and said in a Fox News Digital interview, “I’ve been fighting and defending his agenda for the better part of a decade, and to have the president reflect that understanding in his endorsement a few days ago means so much to me.”
Cruz, who endorsed Wilson a week ahead of Trump’s backing, told Fox News Digital, “I was very glad to see the president endorsing Alan Wilson… My philosophy, as you know, is that I support the strongest conservative who can win, and I think in the governor’s race that’s Alan Wilson.”
It’s been 28 years since a Democrat won a gubernatorial election in South Carolina, and Wilson will now be considered the clear favorite in the general election against Democratic nominee Jermaine Johnson, a state representative.
“Wilson is a combat veteran, a seasoned prosecutor, and a proud patriot. As Attorney General, he fought back against Biden’s radical federal overreach, dismantled dangerous cartel networks, and put child predators behind bars,” Republican Governors Association Chair Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana said in a statement. “As governor, Wilson will continue defending the people of South Carolina and ensure families stay safe and free.”
But Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper, in a statement, emphasized, “In South Carolina, costs are too high, health care is too inaccessible, and schools are failing – and Alan Wilson would just make things worse. Wilson opposes Medicaid expansion, has repeatedly defended the state’s extreme abortion ban, and is part of the same group of insiders who have failed South Carolina.”
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past two months, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.
But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped three weeks ago when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Trump rebounded two weeks ago, as Evette finished first in the GOP gubernatorial primary and longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina won a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.
Last week Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races in Georgia and Alabama, with the one setback coming against a billionaire businessman who shelled out over $100 million of his own money to boost his campaign.
Rep. Barry Moore, a House Freedom Caucus member and longtime Trump supporter who was endorsed by the president, comfortably defeated rival Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who was supported by some top names on the right, in solidly red Alabama’s GOP Senate runoff.
In battleground Georgia’s Republican Senate runoff, an 11th-hour endorsement by Trump this past weekend helped boost Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion, to victory over former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was backed by popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election in a race that’s among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber in the midterms.
Jones regularly showcased his Trump endorsement, but Jackson, who launched his bid in February long after the president had endorsed Jones, repeatedly said that Trump had inspired him to run.
But in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial runoff, the candidate Trump backed, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was also endorsed by Kemp this past weekend, was defeated by Rick Jackson, who ran as an outsider.
A Trump political operative, pointing to Tuesday’s loss by Trump-backed Jones, noted that “Rick Jackson set a record for spending in a statewide Republican primary. He spent Tom Steyer level money in a state a fraction of the size of California. That’s going to have an impact.”
And the operative, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, also emphasized that “Rick bearhugged Trump. All of his ads and material was about how he’s going to be Trump’s favorite governor. So the race was not really a referendum on Trump.”
Fox News’ Luke Trevisan contributed to this report.