President Donald Trump announced his support in South Carolina’s upcoming gubernatorial election for the opponent of a GOP lawmaker who broke with him over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The president wrote in a Friday post to Truth Social he is giving Republican South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette his “Complete and Total Endorsement” in the crowded June 9 GOP primary for the state’s governorship, calling her “an America First Patriot who has been with me from the very beginning.” Evette is running against Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a firebrand lawmaker who was one of an initial four Republicans to defy Trump in the summer of 2025 in signing on to a Democrat-backed discharge petition to force the House to vote on the release of the unredacted Epstein files. (RELATED: Nancy Mace And Hillary Clinton Clash Over Howard Lutnick In Fiery Epstein Oversight Deposition)
Evette “never wavered, never let me down, and was the only South Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate to Endorse me as soon as I launched my 2024 Presidential Campaign,” Trump wrote in his endorsement post, which does not mention Mace or any of Evette’s other primary opponents, such as Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. “She crisscrossed South Carolina and other States for me, and I said, at the time, that this is truly something which I cannot forget!”
In addition to her support of the Epstein discharge petition, Mace has spearheaded other efforts to bring Epstein’s sex crimes against children to the public light. In March, she led a House Oversight Committee effort to call then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify in front of Congress about her department’s release of the files.
“I have enormous respect for President Trump and everything he has done for our country and for South Carolina. That respect is genuine and it is unchanged,” Mace said in a statement following Trump’s endorsement of Evette.
“I also know I put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line when I demanded transparency on the Epstein files,” Mace continued. “I demanded it because you deserved the truth – ALL OF IT – and as a survivor, I had to get justice for these women. If this is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it.”
Mace’s gubernatorial campaign referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to her statement when asked for comment.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures to supporters at an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. Also pictured is South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette (R). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
In backing a challenger to Mace’s bid for higher office, the president has now either endorsed against or threatened to endorse against all four of the breakaway group of GOP lawmakers who signed onto the petition.
Trump successfully ousted the co-leader of the effort, Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, in a May 19 primary which was the most expensive House nomination contest in U.S. history. Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who Trump endorsed before he entered the race, defeated Massie by a wider-than-expected margin of just under 10 points. In addition to the release of the files, the president and Massie had sparred over issues including the Iran war and the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
Former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had also signed onto the petition, announced she was resigning from Congress in November 2025, one week after Trump withdrew his support of her and vowed to back a potential primary challenger. Trump in mid-May also threatened to back a primary challenger to Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert — another signatory of the Massie-led petition — after she campaigned for the Kentucky congressman against Gallrein.
In a November 2025 reversal of his previous stance vehemently opposing the petition, Trump called on House Republicans to release the Epstein files, quipping, “[W]e have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.” Days later, he signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act ordering the documents’ release, after it had passed Congress by a near-unanimous margin.
Hours before Trump issued his endorsement, Mace sent out an X post stating, “Pamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP. Do not believe her LIES.” The post remains live as of late Saturday morning.
Pamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP.
Do not believe her LIES. pic.twitter.com/2vP1E3T5M8
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) May 29, 2026
Mace, Evette, Wilson, and others are running to succeed incumbent Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who took office in 2017 and is barred from seeking reelection due to term limits. McMaster endorsed Evette in February.
In his endorsement post, Trump pointed to rumblings Evette might select the governor’s son, Henry McMaster Jr., as her running mate, which he called “A BIG added plus for Pam.”
A Trafalgar Group poll conducted from May 21 to 24 — before Trump endorsed Evette — shows the lieutenant governor in the lead with 19.9% of support, followed by Wilson with 19.4%, businessman Rom Reddy with 19.0%, Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman with 15.9%, and Mace in a surprising fifth place, with 14.6%. McMaster’s predecessor, former Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, endorsed Norman, who had backed her ill-fated 2024 bid for the presidency.
If elected, Evette will be South Carolina’s second female governor and its first-ever Catholic governor.
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