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President Donald Trump made an 11th-hour confirmation in the last period before Tuesday’s high-profile gubernatorial election in strongly red South Carolina, saying “he can’t hurt one of them by only allowing the other.”
Trump on Friday took to Truth Social to say that he supports South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the battle for the GOP nomination in the race to replace Gov. Republican Henry McMaster.
Wilson’s endorsement appears to be Trump’s move to hedge his bets, because Trump already supports Evette, who is also supported by McMaster, the president’s longtime ally.
The South Carolina run has been viewed as the latest test of Trump’s growing hold on the GOP and the strength of his endorsement in the Republican nomination contests.
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South Carolina Attorney General, Alan Wilson, announced that he will run for governor on Monday, June 23, 2025, accompanied by his family. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
And his decision to support Evette and Wilson is not the first time he has made two endorsements in the same Republican race. He is already backing both Gina Swoboda and Jay Feely in next month’s Republican primary in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.
Most famously, Trump endorsed “ERIC” in the 2022 GOP Senate primary in Missouri, where the two main candidates were Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens. Both nominees sought confirmation, with Schmitt ultimately winning the nomination.
In South Carolina, Trump endorsed Evette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Evette finished at the top of a crowded field of first-choice contenders, with Wilson coming in second. The field also included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and billionaire businessman Rom Reddy. With no one receiving the most votes, the top two, Evette and Wilson advanced to the June 23 runoff.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after failing to advance to the runoff. And Wilson was also supported last week by Sen. Ted Cruz, the hotshot from Texas.
The feud between Evette and Wilson has heated up, and in Tuesday’s final debate both candidates attacked each other and accused each other of lying and distorting their records.
Wilson worked to contrast his tenure as attorney general with what he argued was Evette’s role as lieutenant governor. And he has touted his experience as a military veteran, prosecutor, and top federal law enforcement official.
Evette presented herself as an outsider and a Trump-endorsed businesswoman, while positioning Wilson as a career politician.
It’s been 28 years since a Democratic party won a gubernatorial election in South Carolina, and the GOP winner will be considered the clear favorite in the general election against Democratic incumbent Jermaine Johnson, state representative.
Lt. Gov. of South Carolina Pamela Evette announces her bid for the Republican nomination for governor at The Smokestack in Judson Mill in South Carolina on July 14, 2025. (Joshua Boucher/National News Service/Tribune/Getty Images)
The president’s brute force has been on display in the GOP primaries over the past two months, with candidates ousting incumbents in statewide contests in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.
But Trump’s success in the Republican primaries at the national and congressional level was taken three weeks ago when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Iowa’s Randy Feenstra in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was cut short by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and political strategist who once supported the political wings of MAHA – an acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement associated with Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservation organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Zach Lahn raises his fist in celebration after defeating his primary opponent in the Iowa GOP primary race on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Zach Lahn for Governor via Facebook)
Trump resurfaced a week later, as Evette finished first in the GOP gubernatorial primary and longtime Trump supporter, Sen.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing serious challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who was targeting the congressman over his support for the war on Iran. Lynch was supported by some MAGA leaders who were critical of the president.
In the past few days, candidates supported by Trump won two of the three primary races in Georgia and Alabama, and another incident came from a billionaire businessman who gave his own money more than 100 million dollars to promote his campaign.
Rep. Barry Moore, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and a longtime Trump supporter endorsed by the president, comfortably defeated challenger Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who was backed by some top right-wing names, in Alabama’s deeply red GOP Senate race.
In the battleground state of Georgia’s Senate, Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement this past weekend helped Rep. Mike Collins, MAGA champion, to defeat college football coach Derek Dooley, who was backed by popular Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election in a race between the minorities that could determine whether the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber during the terms.
Gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson speaks to supporters at a campaign stop in Alpharetta, Ga., on June 14, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Jones has consistently touted Trump’s endorsement, but Jackson, who launched his bid in February long after the president endorsed Jones, has repeatedly said Trump inspired him to run.
But in the Georgia Gubernatorial Runoff, Trump supported, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was also sponsored by Kemp this past weekend, was defeated by Rick Jackson, who ran as an outsider.
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Trump’s political organization, pointing to Tuesday’s loss to Trump-backed Jones, noted that “Rick Jackson set a statewide Republican primary spending record. He spent Tom Steyer’s level in a small state in California. That will have an impact.”
And the employee, who asked not to be named in order to speak more freely, reiterated that “Rick held Trump. All of his ads and material were about how he would be Trump’s favorite governor. So the race wasn’t really a poll on Trump.”
Fox News’ Luke Trevisan contributed to this report
