McMaster raises $5M for re-election bid, campaign says

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s campaign said Monday he has reached “a major fundraising milestone.”

The campaign has raised more than $5 million raised so far in the 2022 election cycle, having raised $607,492 in the first quarter. McMaster Campaign Manager Mark Knoop said that leads the gubernatorial field by “a substantial margin.”

“The campaign’s growing war chest and massive grassroots support will drive a successful McMaster-Evette re-election campaign, and it will help conservative Republican leaders up and down the ballot in November,” Knoop said.

He said the campaign’s cash on hand reached $3.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2022 and that last year, the McMaster-Evette campaign became the first gubernatorial campaign of the 2022 election to surpass $1 million raised in a single quarter.

Late last week, the campaign of former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, who served the state’s First Congressional District for a single term before being defeated by Republican Nancy Mace in 2020, said he has raised more than $1.7 million. The Cunningham campaign raised $400,000 in the first quarter of 2022.

McMaster, who is running for his second full term as governor; and Cunningham are two of a total of 12 candidates in the race for the Governor’s Mansion, according to the South Carolina Election Commission.

He is being challenged on the Republican side by Mindy Steele and Harrison Musselwhite, chairman of the Greenville Republican Party Legislative Committee.

Besides Cunningham, his other Democratic opponents include State Sen. Mia McLeod, Calvin CJ Mack McMillian, Carlton Boyd, and William H. Williams.

Gary Votour is running for the Labor Party; Bruce Reeves is running as a Libertarian; and Jokie Beckett Jr. and Michael Copland are running as independents.

Statewide primaries are scheduled for June 14 and the general election is set for Nov. 8.