McMaster, Evette are SC’s 1st gov ticket to file for reelect

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette made history on Wednesday as the first gubernatorial ticket to file for reelection in South Carolina.

“We’ve had great success in the last four years,” McMaster told reporters after Evette signed her campaign paperwork. “She is fully conversant with the trials, tribulations and challenges of business. … I think that we offer a good, strong team that’s fully committed to the great people of South Carolina.”

In 2018, as he sought his first full term, McMaster became the first governor to run on the same ticket as his pick for lieutenant governor. At the time, Evette was a political newcomer, a Greenville businesswoman McMaster said he picked in part due to her “fresh eyes” when it came to governing, as well as her relationships with the business community.

Over the past four years, Evette has spent many months traveling the state, meeting with companies and businesses, as well as promoting relationships between South Carolina’s technical training schools, the strength of which both she and the governor have argued is key to the state’s growing manufacturing economy.

“I’m circling the state, encouraging parents to get their kids working again, to fill in those entry-level positions, that the governor’s bold ideas have opened up,” Evette said. “So we are asking for four more years.”

In November, McMaster will face Democrat Joe Cunningham, a former one-term congressman who is now seeking the state’s top job. Cunningham has said he will announce his pick for a running mate next week.

No Democrat has captured South Carolina’s top job in 20 years, and Republicans have held all statewide-elected offices for more than a decade.

(WATCH BELOW: Gov. McMaster proposes pay raises for South Carolina law enforcement)

Gov. McMaster proposes pay raises for South Carolina law enforcement

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