Gov. Henry McMaster and his then-agriculture adviser Cody Simpson visit Edgefield County on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy of the governor's office)
COLUMBIA — Two surprise endorsements Thursday may heat up the race for South Carolina’s next agriculture commissioner.
Gov. Henry McMaster threw his “full endorsement and support” behind his former agriculture adviser Cody Simpson — if he decides to run.
“I am calling on Cody to step up and answer the call to serve,” the Republican governor said in social media posts. He “has the experience needed and, just as importantly, has the knowledge and understanding of the challenges our rural families face. Because he has lived them.”
Within a few hours, President Donald Trump weighed in on his platform Truth Social: “Should he decide to enter this Race, Cody Simpson has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” his post concluded. “RUN, CODY, RUN!”
Simpson 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.
It’s a long title. Simpson said he prefers to go by “President Trump’s farmer in South Carolina.”
The posts were an unexpected twist in a down-ballot race that only a month ago had just one candidate: Fred West of Batesburg-Leesville, who Commissioner Hugh Weathers last year endorsed to succeed him. Then last month, Jeremy Cannon of Turbeville launched his bid.
Simpson’s entry would bring another generational farmer from Clarendon County into the mix. The 34-year-old is a fifth-generation row farmer outside Manning, who recalls growing up in a single-wide trailer 2 miles down a dirt road.
“It’s very humbling,” Simpson told the SC Daily Gazette about being asked to run.
Clarendon County farmer joins race to lead SC’s Department of Agriculture
He said he’ll make a decision after more prayer.
Simpson joined McMaster’s office in 2018, noting the governor offered him a job as he was pulling pigweed from the soybean field. He started four days later.
He’d been volunteering for McMaster’s campaigns since his unsuccessful 2010 bid for governor, while Simpson was attending Francis Marion University. McMaster was the only GOP gubernatorial candidate that year who bothered campaigning in Clarendon County, he said.
Like many farms in South Carolina, the land that’s been in his family since 1904 is facing pressure from developers.
“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t get a letter in the mail from solar operations” or housing developers, he said, declining to use the often-used term solar farms: “There’s not a thing that grows under that.”
But they’re not selling, he said: “We’ll sacrifice everything we have to keep our land.”
Cannon, a 44-year-old fourth-generation farmer, said he wasn’t surprised by McMaster’s pre-announcement endorsement of Simpson. He wasn’t looking for an endorsement from the governor.
“I don’t care who runs or who gets endorsed by a politician,” Cannon said.
He’s hoping to spend the next four months proving to voters that no matter who else is on the ballot, he’s got the most experience and passion for the job.
West, a director at the state Department of Agriculture, said he’s thrilled to already be endorsed by Weathers and 21 members of the Legislature. That’s because he has the agribusiness experience South Carolina needs, he said.
“I’m going to stay focused on delivering real results for farmers and consumers,” said West, 61, who joined the agency after 24 years as an executive at the poultry processing company Amick Farm.
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.
Reporter Adrian Ashford contributed to this report.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
