The South Carolina Republican gubernatorial debate was held at the Newberry Opera House, in Newberry, SC, Wednesday April 1, 2026. (Photo by Mark Susko/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — A longshot candidate for governor was disqualified from the race after failing to pay her filing fee, according to the state Republican Party.
Jacqueline Hicks DuBose signed up to enter the race during the final hour of filing last month.
The 61-year-old mother of four, who owns a Hartsville cleaning company and drives a school bus, was one of seven Republicans vying for the party’s nomination in the June 9 primary.
DuBose’s name will still appear on voters’ ballots, which are already printed. The state Republican Party “will take all reasonable measures to inform voters of the decertification,” said Leighton Gray Smith, the party’s executive director, in an email.
Every candidate for governor had to pay a $4,243.12 filing fee when they signed up to run. The fee represents 1% of the governor’s total salary over four years.
The money goes through the state political party, which can certify or decertify a candidate based on whether they meet the criteria to run under state law.
The State Election Commission received a check for DuBose’s filing fee March 30, according to campaign documents.
But the check bounced, Smith said.
DuBose had yet to pay the party back the fee as of Monday, more than a month after filing to run, Smith said and DuBose confirmed.
The party gave her several weeks to pay. She was officially decertified May 4.
The money was supposed to come from an inheritance that DuBose expected to have in her account by the time she wrote the check, she told the SC Daily Gazette on Monday. But the funds got tied up in legal hurdles, and she has yet to receive any of what she anticipated receiving, she said.
“I just didn’t get the money up in time,” she said.
DuBose plans to pay what she owes to the Republican Party once she receives those funds, though she had no specific plan or timeline as to how that would work Monday. She had yet to talk to anyone with the party about how she would repay them, she said Monday afternoon.
“I’m going to honor that no matter what,” DuBose said of the fee.
DuBose did not report raising any money during her short-lived campaign, which had no website. She would have faced competitors raising and spending millions of dollars in bids they officially launched as far back as last June.
All six of the other candidates for the GOP nomination appeared on the party’s debate stage last month, but DuBose did not.
DuBose planned to focus her campaign on work requirements for people receiving government assistance. She suggested stricter requirements to receive grocery aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often known as food stamps, she said previously.
“I do have some good ideas,” she said Monday.
Last-hour filer for SC governor’s race explains her campaign
While she said she was sad to no longer be in the running for governor, DuBose said this wouldn’t be her final foray into politics.
Her only other campaign experience was an unsuccessful bid for Darlington County School Board. She said she hopes to run again for another office, though she wasn’t sure yet which one.
In the meantime, DuBose said she planned to focus on her nonprofit, Jumping 2 New Heights.
The after-school program, which DuBose said helps children find new hobbies they can turn into careers, lost its nonprofit tax status last year after DuBose forgot to file her annual tax paperwork. She’s in the process of reinstating it, she said.
She hadn’t looked very closely at her former opponents’ platforms, she said. All she knew was she wanted another Republican to win.
“Whoever wins, I want to support them,” DuBose said.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
