Attorney General Alan Wilson, a Republican, will be South Carolina’s next governor, with state Sen. Mike Reichenbach of Florence as lieutenant governor.
Wilson won 1,050,190 votes, or 51.6%, to 959,001, or 47.1%, for Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, according to unofficial results from the South Carolina Election Commission. Johnson conceded on election night, and The Associated Press called the race for Wilson at 12:35 a.m. Nov. 4, the SC Daily Gazette reported.
The Charleston area went the other way. Johnson carried Charleston County 55.9% to 42.9% and edged Wilson in Berkeley County, 49.7% to 48.9%, and Dorchester County, 49.7% to 48.8%.
Wilson, a four-term attorney general, will succeed Gov. Henry McMaster. His affordability agenda, released Oct. 15, calls for eliminating the state income tax and reforming the Department of Commerce “by negotiating better corporate deals and demanding accountability,” FOX Carolina reported. It also proposes changing Act 388 “to remove higher property taxes for rental properties,” lowering personal property taxes for commercial businesses and cutting utility rates by building out the energy grid and creating competition.
“As your governor, I aspire to be a transformational governor, not a transitional governor,” Wilson told supporters, according to the Gazette.
He will work with a changed Legislature. Democrats flipped 10 seats in the state House, one of them headed to an automatic recount, ending the Republicans’ two-thirds supermajority, though Republicans still hold 79 of 124 seats, the Gazette reported. Four of the flipped seats belonged to Republicans from the Charleston area: Brandon Cox of Goose Creek, Greg Ford of Summerville, Harriet Holman of Ridgeville and James Teeple of Johns Island.
House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, a Greenville Republican, read the results as a call to focus on prices.
“I think our voters want us to focus on helping small businesses, cutting taxes, and getting out of the way of their ability to make a living wage,” Bannister told the Gazette. Lawmakers return in January.
All results remain unofficial until they are certified.
