Cody Simpson with his 1-year-old golden retriever, Manning, outside his family's general store in the unincorporated Home Branch community in Clarendon County. (Photo courtesy of the Simpson campaign)
COLUMBIA — The race to be South Carolina’s next agriculture commissioner is officially a three-person contest.
Cody Simpson, former agriculture adviser to Gov. Henry McMaster and a Trump administration appointee, announced Thursday that he’s running for the job.
His announcement comes two weeks after both McMaster and President Donald Trump publicly encouraged the fifth-generation Clarendon County farmer to run and gave their full endorsement ahead of his decision.
McMaster and Trump endorse 3rd potential candidate for SC agriculture commissioner
“South Carolina agriculture is the backbone of our state’s economy and our way of life,” Simpson said in a release.
“As a farmer, I understand the rising costs, the labor challenges, the regulatory burdens, and the uncertainty that too many of our producers face,” he continued. “We need a Commissioner who knows agriculture not just from behind a desk, but also from the cab of a tractor and the fields of South Carolina.”
Simpson’s family farm is in the unincorporated Home Branch community in Clarendon County, where he says he was working at the family general store by age 10.
He enters a race that until last month had just one candidate: Fred West of Batesburg-Leesville, who Commissioner Hugh Weathers last year endorsed to succeed him. Jeremy Cannon of Turbeville — another generational farmer in Clarendon County — launched his bid in January.
Simpson joined McMaster’s office in 2018, after volunteering for his gubernatorial campaigns since 2010.
The 34-year-old left McMaster’s office as chief executive assistant last May, after the Trump administration appointed him as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency’s executive director for South Carolina.
Simpson told the SC Daily Gazette earlier this month that he preferred to go by the shorter title “President Trump’s farmer in South Carolina.”
Weathers is retiring after nearly 22 years leading the state Department of Agriculture.
The job entails overseeing about 250 full-time employees with duties that include promoting the state’s various agribusiness sectors, keeping the food supply safe, and — since 2024 — handling all inspections of places that sell food, such as restaurants and cafeterias.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
