How SC’s three Democratic governor hopefuls are maneuvering to win nomination
The most recent campaign finance filings of those seeking the Democratic nomination for South Carolina governor show the dichotomy that developed in the race.
One candidate is relying mostly on small dollar donors, while two candidates have access to deeper pockets.
Three candidates filed to run for the Democratic nomination for governor: state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod and Greenville businessman Billy Webster. The primary is June 9. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the top two vote-getters move on to a June 23 runoff.
McLeod, who put in more than $2.3 million of his own money into the race, has been spending it on outreach into the Black community, the key voting demographic in the Democratic primary electorate.
Webster, who founded the payday loan company that became Advance America and has the resources to fund his own campaign, has raised more than $500,000, in the first two-and-a-half week as an announced candidate.
Johnson, a Richland County Democrat and a charismatic speaker who can excite a room, has relied heavily on small dollar donors and has not the received the support of Democrats with deeper pockets as he had hoped.
How McLeod is spending his money
So far this cycle, McLeod has spent $1.2 million on his campaign, and he’s invested in outreach to the Black community
Among the consultants and staffers McLeod is working with is JC Associates, whose CEO is Kwadjo Campbell. Campbell was the South Carolina state director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, and Upstate political director for the Jaime Harrison’s 2020 U.S. Senate campaign.
Campbell has worked with state and local elected officials representing the Charleston and Greenville regions, and has 20 years of experience in community organizing, and public policy issues affecting underserved communities, according to his biography on the JC Associates website.
Money to JC Associates also was listed as for the SC African American Council. A $5,000 expenditure in November to the SC African American Council was listed for advertising.
So far during the campaign, he has spent $10,500 on advertising in the Black Voice, a newspaper in North Charleston focusing on the Black community.
McLeod has hired Kayin Jones, a Black political consultant in Columbia.
He has paid $28,000 to the Singleton Consulting Group, which is run by Kerry Singleton, a Morehouse College graduate from Greeleyville. Singleton has been paid mostly youth engagement for the McLeod campaign, ethics filings say.
McLeod also has the endorsement from state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston.
McLeod’s campaign also spent more than $143,000 on radio advertising.
“We’re pretty much are going to be communicating with voters from here on out all the way through the general,” McLeod said in an interview in March.
McLeod, a trial attorney, also is working with Crantford Research, who’s principal, Carey Crantford, started his career doing political polling, and now does public opinion polling and runs focus groups among other services. He also has worked with Charles Halloran and Class Five Strategies, a firm that works with campaigns or organizations in crisis and helps turn them around. Early in his campaign, McLeod had to deal with fallout of the release of police dashcam video of him going on a shirtless verbal tirade while under arrest.
“I have spent the last 25 years representing the interests of people in courtrooms all over our state and being their voice when they needed one the most,” McLeod said in a news release after filing to run. “I believe that when the people of South Carolina have a servant leader like me whose heart belongs to God and whose voice belongs to the people, then we the people will be able to take back all the power, and it will finally be a great day in South Carolina.”
Billy Webster’s late start, fast fundraising
Webster entered the race for governor late, formally launching his campaign March 25 in the middle of filing.
But as the first quarter of the year ended six days later, Webster raised $286,000. Webster said when he kicked off that he planned to have a well-run, well-funded campaign.
In the first 10 days of the second quarter, the campaign also brought in $225,000, bringing his fundraising haul of his first 16 days official campaigning to $511,000, according to documents provided by the campaign.
Among those to donate is former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges. He and his wife, Rachel, each gave $3,500.
“I think Webster is certainly better positioned to win a governor’s race. It takes a lot to win a race, and one of the things it takes is the financial commitment to run a race,” Hodges said. “He has an ability that Democratic candidates haven’t had a long time, and that’s the ability to raise money”
Not only is that ability important in a campaign for governor, it’s also “extremely important to the people running down ballot all the way to city council races,” Hodges said.
But Webster’s initial filing did not include a large infusion of his personal money. For Webster, “it was important to show he was able to fundraise and people are interested” in his bid, said campaign spokeswoman Jada Samuel.
So far, Webster has reported paying for his own $4,243 filing fee, and his wife, Teresa, has put in $7,000 into the campaign.
Samuel, however, would not comment on when Webster make pour more personal money into his campaign.
Among those Webster, who worked as the scheduler in President Bill Clinton’s administration, has received financial support from former state Sen. Dick Harpootlian and his wife, Jamie, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, who now lives in the Lowcountry, and former Greenville County Democratic Party Chairwoman Amanda McDougald Scott, among others.
“If you look at the folks in this race so far, I’m the only one who’s prepared and experienced for this job,” Webster said the day he filed to run for governor. “I’ve started and run four companies. I've run very large departments and agencies. I’m the guy who gets stuff done. None of the other candidates can say that.”
Jermaine Johnson’s small dollar donors
Johnson, the charismatic Richland County state representative who was encouraged by state Democratic Party leadership to get into the race, has received support from within the General Assembly.
Johnson has received the support from many state House lawmakers including state Sens. Tameika Isaac Devine, Darrell Jackson, Russell Ott and Deon Tedder, and state Reps. Heather Bauer, Bill Clyburn, Kambrell Garvin, Jerry Govan, Hamilton Grant, Leon Howard and Annie McDaniel, among others.
His campaign has relied heavily on small dollar donations for his bid.
In the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of the year, Johnson received 9,902 contributions. On the days he received a donation, the average number of contributions was 99.5.
But some days he saw spikes in fundraising, mostly centered around text message appeals.
On Feb. 16, he received 477 donations. Those came about week-and-a-half after President Donald Trump shared a video of former President Barack Obama depicted as an ape. The Johnson campaign sent out an email and fundraising text message about the episode.
In order to make those appeals this cycle, Johnson’s campaign paid nearly $8,900 for texting services and more than $29,000 on merchant fees and on a list rental from a Democratic finance firm.
Johnson also spent more than $194,000 on consultants and staff salaries during through the first quarter. Of that amount, $76,000 was on digital consulting, which is in addition to the more than $4,200 on digital advertising.
Even though Johnson’s most common donation during his campaign has $25, he did have a couple of notable donations: a contribution former Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison for $1,500, and contributions from former presidential candidate Andrew Yang totalling $3,500. Also, he had only 14 maximum donations of $3,500.
Johnson also had a spike in donations on March 20 and 21 when he rumors circulated he was being pushed out of the race. Johnson, however, decided to stay in, and he received another spike in contributions the day he filed to run.
“There are other people who are Democrats, who have power, who want to maneuver certain things, and they want to impart their fingerprints on everything. And those individuals are the ones who came and asked for certain things to for me to do,” Johnson said after filing to run about his thought process on whether to stay in the race.
“But the people of South Carolina, they spoke up. They spoke on my behalf. They said, ‘we want a fighter. We want somebody to be with us,’” Johnson continued. “These people deserve somebody who’s not going to back down, somebody’s going to stand with them, and somebody who’s going to ignore all the different things. And South Carolina’s ready for somebody like me.”
Johnson declined to name who encouraged him to drop out of the race.
“If you’re a rich person and you have lots of money, that’s who they consider viable as a leader. But we know in this time, you can’t buy a seat, you can’t buy support, you can’t buy individuals. You can’t buy the people around South Carolina, the people of South Carolina, not for sale,” Johnson said.
Fundraising by the numbers through the first quarter
Jermaine Johnson
- Raised: $416,648.72
- Spent: $317,554.27
- Cash on hand: $99,094.45
Mullins McLeod
- Raised: $2,473,649
- Spent: $1,245,447.42
- Cash on hand: $1,228,201.58
Billy Webster
- Raised: $286,157.12
- Spent: $11,773.42
- Cash on hand: $274,383.70
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 11:13 AM with the headline "How SC’s three Democratic governor hopefuls are maneuvering to win nomination."
