COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Old friends, former president Donald Trump and the governor of South Carolina. Henry McMaster are on opposite sides as voters chose their Republican candidate Tuesday in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Also at stake in South Carolina’s primary is whether the last of the state’s three Republican women, known as the “Sister Senators,” survive after they opposed a blanket abortion ban.
In the state of South Carolina, McMaster supports nurse Sheri Biggs, the wife of a political confidante and regular donor. Trump supports Mark Burnsa black pastor who has been by his side for almost ten years.
Both candidates have not previously held political office and the winner of the runoff is a heavy favorite to defeat a Democrat and a third-party candidate in the most Republican district in Republican Party-dominated South Carolina.
McMaster and Trump go way back. McMaster became the nation’s first elected official to endorse Trump in early 2016. When he became president, Trump said he asked then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to become U.N. ambassador so McMaster could move from lieutenant governor to the state’s top job.
There is no apparent animosity between the endorsers. McMaster personally campaigned for Biggs, while Trump did not visit South Carolina for Burns.
Here are some things to know about these candidates:
Similar views
The candidates for the House of Representatives had similar popular views to the Republicans, such as ending almost all abortions, closing the border and fighting inflation, as well as a total disregard for ideas from the Democrats. If Biggs wins in November, she would be the state’s second Republican woman in Congress. Burns would become the second black Republican elected to the U.S. House since Reconstruction.
With similar agendas, the two-week sprint to the second round has become a matter of style. Burns, who received 33% of the vote in the June 11 primary, said he is the only candidate strong enough to fight for Trump. He has called Biggs a “swamp creature” who would not fight the establishment. He also pointed out that when Biggs was born in South Carolina, he moved here seven years ago.
“Right now we need a Trump-backed pit bull, not a poodle. That’s why the president is supporting me. I am that junkyard dog from Belton, South Carolina, committed to the America First agenda,” Burns said during a debate last week.
Biggs, who came in second with 29% of the vote, is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. She said Burns misrepresents his academic and military background and voted for former Democratic President Barack Obama. Biggs has promoted photos of her taken with Trump and said she is the candidate who can bring people together.
“I want to help heal our nation. We are broken financially, mentally and spiritually,” Biggs said during that same debate.
Financing differences
Both candidates have invested heavily of their own money. Biggs lent her campaign nearly $350,000 and raised another $182,000 from individual donors.
Burns has taken out $750,000 in loans for the 2024 campaign and raised just over $16,000 from private individuals. He still owes a $100,000 loan from an unsuccessful 2022 run in the neighboring 4th Congressional District. And unlike Biggs, Burns has not filed a mandatory ethics disclosure form detailing his personal finances, which would provide insight into his personal worth and ability to repay the loans.
“You can look at my financial reports,” says Biggs, who, along with her husband, lists millions of dollars in assets in investments and businesses. “I submitted mine unlike my opponent.”
The seat is open after Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan decided not to run again after seven terms. Duncan’s wife of 35 years filed for divorce in 2023 and accused him of several things.
The Republican candidate will face the Democratic candidate, Sherwin-Williams paint store manager Byron Best of Greenwood, and Michael Bedenbaugh of the Alliance Party in November.
The district in the northwest corner of the state contains several small population centers.
Sister Senators
In Lexington County, just west of Columbia, voters are deciding whether to remove from office the last of three Republican sister senators who helped defeat a near-total abortion ban in South Carolina.
The three women received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for people who risk their careers for the greater good after joining Democratic lawmakers last year. The General Assembly ultimately passed a measure that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — before most people know they are pregnant.
Senator Katrina Shealy finished first in the June 11 primary, but her 40% of the vote was well below the majority needed to win outright. Attorney Carlisle Kennedy was a few percentage points behind.
Shealy, along with fellow Republican Sens. Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafson, said a pregnant woman should not lose control of her body once an egg is fertilized. Senn lost her primary by 33 votes, while Gustafson received only 18% of the vote.
Aside from a Democratic senator who has largely withdrawn from his district over redistricting, the women are the only ones in South Carolina’s 46-seat Senate to lose their reelection bids.
“You can’t tell me this isn’t a slap in the face to women,” Shealy said of the losses as she prepared for her second round. “Republican women are losing like this on one issue, when we fought so hard for other things.”
