With national political news breaking by the minute and a state governor’s race just around the corner, a new poll is catching the attention of political insiders across the Palmetto State.
Released March 11, the state’s Winthrop Poll found President Donald Trump with the highest approval rating of any name tested at 45%, with Gov. Henry McMaster trailing closely at 43%. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, long down but seemingly never out, brought up the rear at 34%.
“Even including those who responded ‘don’t know,’ President Trump’s approval rating is five points higher than his disapproval,” pollster and Winthrop political professor Scott Huffmon said in a polling memo. “Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided over President Trump’s performance, but his approval is riding high among his base.”
Of perhaps even more interest were name identification results for likely 2026 gubernatorial candidates seeking to replace the term-limited McMaster. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-Charleston) led the field with 52% of respondents saying they were very or somewhat familiar with her, followed by Republican S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson at 39% and current Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette at 32%.
But when looking only at likely Republican primary voters, those numbers grew much stronger.
“Importantly, both Mace and Wilson, often touted as leading candidates at this early stage, have extremely high name recognition among those respondents who might be perceived as most likely to vote in a Republican primary,” Huffmon noted. “Among Republicans who reported having voted in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary, Mace is recognized by more than two-thirds and Wilson is recognized by more than half.”
The Winthrop Poll of 1,220 South Carolinians was conducted from Feb. 21-March 5. Results using all respondents have a margin of error of +/-2.81%.
Next week in the Statehouse
The S.C. House is in recess until March 25. The Senate is scheduled to return at noon on March 18. Committee highlights include a Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing on a bill to regulate the use of the word “meat” on certain food products, and a Senate Legislative Oversight Committee hearing on the state Department on Aging.
- A complete listing of streamable committee meetings is available on the Statehouse website at scstatehouse.gov/video/schedule.php.
In other recent news
S.C. Senate GOP leader says Tuesday is ‘D-Day’ for tort reform. The Senate left Columbia late Thursday without a deal on the contentious and hotly-watched issue of tort reform. Senate Republican Leader Shane Massey, the lead sponsor of the bill, said the Senate needs to resolve the issue by early next week.
S.C. activists call for expanded gun background checks a decade after Emanuel AME killings. Roughly 50 activists from the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action and the Beaufort High School chapter of Students Demand Action met on the south steps of the Statehouse on Thursday to call for the passage of legislation to close the so-called “Charleston loophole.”
S.C. bill would require counties to pay more to jail teens at DJJ. It could lead to fewer arrests. In an effort to reduce overcrowding in South Carolina’s juvenile jail, senators advanced a bill Thursday that would require counties to pay more for each teenager detained.
Anti-DEI proposal killed on S.C. House floor. An effort to bar the use of diversity, equity and inclusion by schools and school districts with the state budget was killed on the House floor by Democrats.
S.C. Senate looks to strengthen penalties against manipulating minors into prostitution. The bill, approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, would sentence adults who lure children into prostitution via “sexual grooming” to five years in prison.
S.C. one of 20 states to consider eliminating income taxes on tips. With bills filed in both the House and the Senate, South Carolina is one of 20 states considering elimination of state income taxes that waiters, bartenders and other hospitality workers collect through tips.
Outside auditors say Loftis misrepresented facts in testimony. AlixPartners, the firm hired to clean up S.C.’s multibillion dollar accounting mess, told state senators this week that S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis has consistently misrepresented facts to downplay his role in the scandal.
S.C. suspends EV charging program. The state has suspended its electric vehicle charging program after President Donald Trump in January issued an executive order pausing funding the disbursement of federal funding the Biden Administration had earmarked for EV charging infrastructure under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, also known as NEVI.
S.C. population continues to boom. New Census Bureau numbers show Myrtle Beach, Spartanburg and Hilton Head among the fastest growing metros in the nation. Due to relocations, S.C.’s population has been growing by almost 100,000 per year despite its negative birth rate.
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