Republican gubernatorial candidates to face off on Charleston debate stage

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — The countdown is on for when South Carolina voters will hear once more from some of the many candidates vying to be the state’s top leader.

The second South Carolina GOP gubernatorial debate is set for Tuesday night and, this time, it’ll be in the Lowcountry.

The South Carolina Republican Party has confirmed that six of the party’s gubernatorial candidates will be facing off with hopes of advancing to become the party’s nominee in June. For some, it will be the first time they’re sharing the stage.

Debate organizers confirm Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette and Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy will be participating. This is a change from the party’s April 1 debate in Newberry, where neither Evette nor Reddy attended.

They will join State Senator Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, U.S. Representative Ralph Norman and Attorney General Alan Wilson, who already faced off at the top of the month.

The seventh republican candidate for governor, Jaqueline Hicks Dubose, was not invited to participate, according to the debate committee. Dubose has not yet responded to a request for comment on that decision.

South Carolina Republican Chairman Drew McKissick clarified the debate committee’s decision to waive the fundraising and polling requirements that were originally in place for candidates.

“Given the first debate didn’t happen until after filing was concluded, then that [fundraising] requirement didn’t matter anymore. So then it just came down to the polling requirement,” McKissick said. “We wanted to have full participation, especially for that first debate. So you also have a little bit of a lack of polling going on at this point. The further we get into this primary, the more consistent and regular polling we’ll see from independent pollsters. You don’t want to necessarily base a restriction on something that quite frankly is a lack of good information at that point in time.”

During the April 1 debate, Kimbrell, Mace, Norman and Wilson all agreed on issues like eliminating the state’s income tax, strengthening school choice and cutting government spending. They had differing thoughts, however, on approaches to growth and infrastructure.

As for topics that McKissick personally wants to hear the candidates address during Tuesday night’s debate, he said the party is more focused on what gets covered across all four statewide debates.

“You’re going to see the issue focus probably shift a little bit on Tuesday in Charleston, versus what we already covered in Newberry. But the candidates so far have been talking about those issues: the economy, the roads, the bridges, the taxes and so forth. That’s bread-and-butter stuff. We’ll see more of that. And you know, by the time this is all over in June, I think the voters will have a good handle on where the candidates stand,” McKissick said.

He said he wants whoever becomes the Republican nominee for governor to stand with party voters and support legislation for political affiliation registration.

“One of the things that our primary voters have expressed numerous times in four different primaries—we have had ballot questions on our primary ballot specific to the ability of voters in South Carolina to register by political party. That’s been a big issue in the legislature. The legislature has not gotten that done despite repeated requests from the State Party, resolutions in favor of it, ballot questions in favor of it. We expect our candidates for governor to stand with the party and stand with our primary voters and their ability to be able to get a change in the law to register by party in the state,” McKissick said.

The SCGOP gubernatorial debate will be televised live from the Sotille Theatre Tuesday at 7 p.m. Live 5’s Raphael James will be one of the moderators.

Anyone can watch the debate live on Live 5, or stream it on the free Live 5 Plus app, which is available by searching “Live 5” on any streaming device. The third televised debate will be May 26 at Wofford College.

The Republican Primary will be June 9.