COLUMBIA — Republican candidates for governor are accusing Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette of falsely implying Gov. Henry McMaster has given her an endorsement in a race where he is officially neutral.
The advertisement, published for television by the Evette-aligned political action committee Patriots for South Carolina, prominently features old footage from McMaster and President Donald Trump boosting Evette in a variety of public settings.
In some parts of the ad, McMaster speaks directly into the camera where he lavishes Evette with praise.
“Pam is what South Carolina is all about,” McMaster says in one snippet.
“Smart, hard-working, and has the experience we need,” he says in another.
“I believe in South Carolina,” he adds. “And I believe in Pamela Evette.”
The footage is pulled from a 2018 McMaster election campaign advertisement which introduced the then-mostly unknown businesswoman as his running mate to a statewide audience.
While heavy on plaudits from McMaster and Trump, the ad ignores one critical fact: neither Trump nor McMaster have yet waded into the competitive five-candidate race.
“Gov. McMaster has not made an endorsement in the race,” Brandon Charochak, a spokesman for the governor’s official office, said in a statement.
Evette’s rivals in the race were quick to pounce. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace characterized the advertisement as a “lie” purposefully intended to mislead voters about where Trump and McMaster’s allegiances lay.
“At the very least it is unethical, and at the very most it is disqualifying,” Mace’s campaign said in a statement.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson’s camp described the commercial as “smoke and mirrors,” and a dishonest depiction of the state of the race.
“Pamela should pull down this ad immediately and apologize,” Wilson said in a statement. “If she’s the straight-shooter businesswoman as she claims, then she should shoot straight with South Carolina, tell the truth, and respect Governor McMaster and President Trump.”
Evette responds
Matthew Goins, an Evette spokesperson, downplayed the campaign’s affiliation with the PAC-produced advertisement, adding that at no point did it directly insinuate the endorsement of either politician.
He brought up a recent poll by conservative pollster co/efficient released earlier in the week showing Evette in a virtual three-way tie with Mace and Wilson for first place as evidence the rest of the field was growing desperate for any edge in the race they could get.
“If I were Nancy or Alan and saw those recent poll numbers, I’d be freaking out as well,” Goins said. “They are shaken by those poll numbers, and both campaigns are frantic.”
Fellow candidates Ralph Norman, at 10 percent, and Josh Kimbrell, at 2 percent, rounded out the result with roughly one-third of voters still undecided.
But the methodology behind the poll itself is questionable.
More than half of those interviewed were over the age of 65, poll demographics show. Of all respondents, some 34 percent hailed from Evette’s home region around Greenville — approximately double the share of potential voters in Wilson’s home region of Columbia and Mace’s base in the Lowcountry.
A new anti-Mace blitz
This week’s events coincided with the launch of a new slate of anti-Mace advertisements, where the Evette and Wilson camps both sought to paint a picture of Mace as a political opportunist willing to shift her politics at a moment’s notice for success at the polls.