Republican candidates running for South Carolina governor met Tuesday for their final debate before the June 9 primary, with businessman Rom Reddy on stage at Wofford College in Spartanburg alongside U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and state Attorney General Alan Wilson.
The debate was the last scheduled faceoff before voters choose the party’s nominee, and it came with a clear cutoff for participation: party leaders said candidates had to average at least 5% in polling to earn an invitation. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell did not meet that threshold and was not invited.
Rom Reddy’s appearance added to a crowded field trying to break through in the closing stretch, while the debate also highlighted who was absent. South Carolina Republican Party officials said an invitation was extended to Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, but she declined and instead held a campaign event Tuesday in North Myrtle Beach.
The Spartanburg debate mattered because it was the final major forum before the June 9 primary, the last chance for the candidates to press their case in a shared setting before ballots are cast. For a race still unsettled, the stage at Wofford College was where contenders could make their final argument to Republican voters and where the field of active contenders was narrowed by the party’s polling rule.
If no candidate wins outright on June 9, the race would move to a runoff, and another debate is already scheduled for June 16 in Conway on the campus of Coastal Carolina University. That would give the surviving candidates one more chance to face each other before the party settles its nominee.
