Polls closed at 7:00 p.m. across South Carolina on Tuesday, and the first South Carolina primary results showed a governor’s race headed to a Republican runoff, a Senate nomination settled and key House contests decided.
Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette advanced to the Republican primary runoff for governor, while Lindsey Graham won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. On the Democratic side, Jermaine Johnson won the governor’s nomination and Annie Andrews captured the party’s Senate nomination.
Nancy Mace added a surprise note to the night when she spoke at her watch party, conceded the race for South Carolina governor and endorsed Wilson. That endorsement sat alongside a result that was less tidy than a victory speech: Wilson did not win the governorship outright and instead moved on to a runoff with Evette.
In the House races, William Timmons won the Republican nomination in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District and James Clyburn won the Democratic nomination in the 6th Congressional District. The results came after weeks of congressional map uncertainty and record early voting turnout, two factors that had already made the state’s primaries unusually closely watched.
The exact vote totals and margins were not immediately available in the reported results, leaving the size of each win and runoff to be filled in later. For now, the next step is clear: Wilson and Evette will face each other again for the Republican governor’s nomination, while the party nominees for Senate and the two House districts head into the general-election phase.
