Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, right, shakes hands with a potential voter at a roundtable event in Marlboro County during her 46-county tour. (Photo courtesy of Evette's campaign)
COLUMBIA — Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s campaign for governor hit a milestone last week, as she completed her goal of visiting all of South Carolina’s 46 counties by year’s end.
She’d already been to every county since she became lieutenant governor in January 2019, she told the SC Daily Gazette.
But this five-month trip around the state, which started in Edgefield County in August, gave her a chance to talk with potential voters in their favorite local gathering spots.
“I want people to understand that I truly care,” she told the Gazette after her final stop of the tour.
While she’s campaigned and served alongside Gov. Henry McMaster since he picked her as a running mate in November 2017, Evette was still largely an unknown to many voters when she launched her campaign in July.
She touts that she’s the first and only candidate for governor of the entire seven-person field to meet with voters in every county.
She’s also the only one making her first solo run for elected office.
When McMaster chose her to be South Carolina’s first lieutenant governor elected as part of a joint ticket, the political novice was president and CEO of Quality Business Solutions, an outsourcing payroll and human resources firm operating out of Travelers Rest, where she lives.
She’s campaigning on her business credentials, saying that’s what voters want.
“No matter where I was — big city, small town — everybody really, the number one thing they expressed [was] they really wanted a business governor,” she said.
Stops included Harold’s Country Club in the Lowcountry town of Yemassee — a family-owned restaurant “proud to be in the middle of nowhere yet close to everything,” according to its slogan. She wrapped up her tour in Bishopville, home to the Lee County Veterans Museum, which displayed a surprising array of veterans’ personal items, including a captured Japanese flag with blood on it.
“I bet you, most people that are true war buffs have no idea that’s there,” she said. “We have so many gems like that in these little small towns.”
While in Bishopville, Evette also presented a letter of congratulations to Janice Atkinson, owner of The Little Florist, who was picked from among more than 15,000 applicants to help decorate the White House for Christmas.
During the tour, Evette said she saw first-hand what South Carolinians want fixed — for example, closed bridges in Chester County.
“It’s just amazing what you learn by being on the road,” she said.
Her sampling of food at restaurants along the way included all of South Carolina’s barbecue types, though ketchup-based remains her favorite. And she watched several football games, including Clemson’s 28-14 victory over South Carolina at the annual Palmetto Bowl rivalry held this year in Columbia.
One of Evette’s three children graduated from the University of South Carolina law school and another attends Clemson, so she stressed she wasn’t cheering for one over the other: “I’m just rooting for South Carolina,” she said.
Before the GOP primary on June 9, she said she wants to visit each county at least one more time.
The four other Republicans who have announced bids for the Governor’s Mansion are state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and Attorney General Alan Wilson.
On Monday, the state Republican Party announced the schedule for at least three debates between the GOP candidates — four if there’s a primary runoff.
The two Democrats in the race are state Rep. Jermaine Johnson and Charleston lawyer Mullins McLeod, who previously ran for governor in 2010 but dropped out ahead of the primary.
