Trump backs both South Carolina GOP rivals as runoff tests his endorsement grip

PELZER, South Carolina — Both candidates in Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial runoff election in this solidly red southeastern state have President Donald Trump's blessing.

Trump, seemingly aiming to cover his bases, made an 11th-hour endorsement ahead of the runoff and is now backing both contenders in the showdown to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

The South Carolina runoff had been viewed as the latest test of Trump's immense grip over the GOP and the power of his endorsements in Republican nominating contests.

But on Friday, just three days after the candidate Trump was backing in neighboring Georgia's Republican gubernatorial runoff lost, the president took to social media to say that he was supporting longtime state Attorney General Alan Wilson as well as Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the battle for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

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"I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!" Trump wrote, adding: "With either one you can’t go wrong."

The endorsement of Wilson appeared to be a move by Trump to hedge his bets, because Trump was already backing Evette, who is also supported by McMaster, a longtime top ally of the president.

Trump's decision to support both Evette and Wilson wasn't the first time he's made dual endorsements in the same Republican race. Most famously, Trump endorsed "ERIC" in the 2022 GOP Senate primary in Missouri, where the two major candidates were Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens. Both candidates claimed the endorsement, with Schmitt ultimately winning the nomination.

In South Carolina, Trump endorsed Evette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.

Evette finished on top of a crowded field of contenders in the primary election, with Wilson second. The field also included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, as the top two finishers, Evette and Wilson advanced to the June 23 runoff.

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Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after failing to advance to the runoff. And Wilson was also backed — and joined on the campaign trail on the eve of the runoff by Sen. Ted Cruz, the conservative firebrand from Texas.

Mace, reacting to Trump's endorsement of both Evette and Wilson, wrote on social media, "LMAO," which is a common abbreviation for the phrase "laughing my a-- off."

The runoff between Evette and Wilson turned combustible, and in last week's final debate, both candidates launched personal attacks and accused each other of lying and misrepresenting their records.

Wilson worked to contrast his tenure as attorney general with what he's argued is Evette’s largely ceremonial role as lieutenant governor. And he has spotlighted his experience as a combat veteran, prosecutor and the state’s top law enforcement official.

Evette showcased herself as an outsider and a Trump-endorsed businesswoman, while casting Wilson as a career politician.

"The president had a lot of confidence in me when it was a crowded field, and I won it for him on June 9. I'm going to win it for him again on June 23," Evette told Fox News Digital on the eve of the runoff. "I have always been very loyal to the president. I've traveled wherever he's asked me to help stump for him, fundraise for him."

Wilson, campaigning with Cruz, pointed to Trump and said in a Fox News Digital interview, "I've been fighting and defending his agenda for the better part of a decade, and to have the president reflect that understanding in his endorsement a few days ago means so much to me."

Cruz, who endorsed Wilson a week ahead of Trump's backing, told Fox News Digital, "I was very glad to see the president endorsing Alan Wilson... My philosophy, as you know, is that I support the strongest conservative who can win, and I think in the governor's race that's Alan Wilson."

The brute force of the president's endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past two months, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But Trump's endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped three weeks ago when his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn't enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

Trump rebounded two weeks ago, as Evette finished first and advanced to Tuesday's runoff.

Meanwhile, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.

Last week, Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races.

Rep. Barry Moore, a House Freedom Caucus member and longtime Trump supporter who was endorsed by the president, comfortably defeated rival Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who was supported by some top names on the right, in solidly red Alabama's GOP Senate runoff.

In battleground Georgia's Republican Senate runoff, an 11th-hour endorsement by Trump this past weekend helped boost Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion, to victory over former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was backed by popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp.

Collins will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election in a race that's among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber in the midterms.

But in Georgia's GOP gubernatorial runoff, the candidate Trump backed, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was also backed at the last minute by Kemp, was defeated by billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who ran as an outsider.