Sparse final debate stage in SC GOP gov primary mostly ignores those not there
The final televised Republican debate before the June 9 primary was conspicuous for who wasn’t there.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, after receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump, backed out of debate choosing to do a campaign stop instead. Shortly after her announcement on Sunday, Isle of Palms business Rom Reddy opted out of the debate and held an Upstate event instead.
After saying ETV should reschedule the debate, Attorney General Alan Wilson told ETV he wouldn’t attend.
But for those who showed up at the Columbia studios, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, their answers were focused, and they refrained from attacking each other.
Here are five takeaways from Monday’s debate.
Are multiple cultures and ethnic groups good for the country?
Moderator Gavin Jackson asked the candidates about a Winthrop poll that found a plurality of South Carolinians believe having people of many races, ethnic groups and nationalities makes the U.S. a better place and whether candidates agreed with the sentiment.
“I don’t look at the color of your skin, I look at your qualifications,” Norman said. “The color of your skin or your ethnicity matters nothing to me. I want to know what you’re going to do. Are you competent in what you’re about to undertake, particularly when you’re being paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
Kimbrell pointed to one of the country’s mottos: “out of many, one.”
“Many of my best friends, my wife, were born in other countries, born in other states, but when they came to South Carolina, they adopted the culture and values of our state, belief in individual rights, belief in faith and family, belief in freedom given to us by ultimately God and a government up for and by the people,” Kimbrell said “I want people to come here and join our culture, not come here and try to tear it down. If you want to come to South County, be part of it, welcome. If you want to destroy it, get out.”
Mace said she believes there’s an issue with people who come to the country assimilating.
“If you look at what’s going on in Europe and overseas, the invasion that’s happening there, it cannot happen here,” Mace said. “But if you go to Minnesota, if you go to Michigan, you hear the Muslim prayer calls hour after hour after hour, that is not those are not our values here in America.”
Evette is the main target in her absence
If Evette had shown up, her opponents would have attacked her to weaken her standing after getting Trump’s endorsement. By not attending, she avoided having to respond to other candidates questioning why she hasn’t announced Henry D. McMaster Jr., the current governor’s son, as her running mate, even though the president suggested that would be the case.
Mace, who has called herself “Trump in high heels,” took to social media to criticize McMaster Jr. for purported explicit social media posts he made when he was in college. She didn’t bring up the subject during the debate.
“You guys rake me over the coals for things all the time. I think turnabout is fair play,” Mace told a reporter after the debate. “We’re talking about somebody’s character, that’s what we’re talking about here, and it’s disgusting, and it’s offensive, and I would never hire someone to be next in line with those kinds of values, it’s gross.” After the debate, Norman criticized Evette, Reddy and Wilson for not attending, saying it was an embarrassment.
“Why are they not showing up? So I would have rather had all the candidates and really increase the time from an hour to an hour and a half,” Norman said.
The swings during the debate at those who were absent came from Kimbrell.
“I would applaud Congressman Norman and Congressman May for being here behind us tonight. You have the words of the Constitution, which starts with ‘We the People,’ not ‘We the 30-second TV ad,’” Kimbrell said.
No Norman attacks on Reddy
In the last debate Norman and Reddy got into spats that continued during the Norman’s post-debate media availability.
Norman did not mention Reddy at all during Monday’s debate.
“The questions were pretty direct. It wasn’t the time to do that. The last debate (if) you had the same situation develop here, I would have addressed it,” Norman told the media afterward.
Longer answers, no commercials, no audience.
In the SCGOP debates done with Gray Media, candidates had 45 seconds to answer each question. They also had opening and closing statements in a debate divided into three segments.
The ETV debate allowed for 60-second answers giving candidates more time to answer a question.
The biggest difference was no audience. The previous GOP debates all had people in the auditoriums. It allowed campaigns to bring supporters to applaud and show off their lung capacity and vocal cord strength after their candidate of choice spoke.
“I think it shows the executive side, and we had more time. I like that we had 60 seconds,” Mace said of Monday’s setting. “We had a minute, so it gave us a little more time to slightly get a little more detail in there when you’re talking about policy, because that’s one thing that’s missing in all this.”
Norman said the debates are about educating people about what he would do as governor.
“When you have a time limit, it’s not fair to have those screaming in the back, clapping. I didn’t miss that, and that’s what’s happened on a lot of them,” Norman said. “But look, I’ll take it as it comes, and I think on all of the debates they’ve done a good job of not letting candidates filibuster.”
Kimbrell gets airtime
Kimbrell who wasn’t on the debate stage last week because he didn’t meet the GOP’s polling threshold was invited to the ETV debate, but after Monday’s debate he was in a jovial mood.
Kimbrell told members of the media he was prepared to back another candidate in the race. He said his choices would be either Wilson or Reddy, and it may come before the June 9 primary.
“The attorney general’s actually got a record. The lieutenant governor’s running around telling everybody, ‘Oh, I did all these things.’ You can’t do anything in South Carolina as lieutenant governor. You can barely order Chipotle on an Uber app without permission from the governor,” Kimbrell said.
This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Sparse final debate stage in SC GOP gov primary mostly ignores those not there."
