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SC

South Carolina Governor

Tue, Nov 3 · Governor Henry McMaster Republican since Jan 2017 (not a candidate in 2026)

Jermaine JohnsonDemocraticAge 41 · 2 years in politics

Jermaine Johnson 38.8Alan Wilson 51.8

Average of 2 polls, Oct 16 to Oct 25, from VoteHub · how it’s calculated

Newest poll

1 is a partisan pollAlso in the average: Michael Addison 2.6, Walid Hakim 1.3Newest · Targoz Market Research, field dates Oct 16 to Oct 25, released Oct 27, 895 likely votersPoll sponsored by South Carolina Policy CouncilPolls fetched Oct 30, 2:02 a.m. ET, from VoteHub

Alan WilsonRepublicanAge 53
Show all 4 candidates on the ballot

Showing major-party nominees, incumbents and candidates with 5%+ in the latest poll or comparable fundraising.

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South Carolina Governor: Jermaine Johnson vs Alan Wilson

Preview card: South Carolina Governor: Jermaine Johnson vs Alan Wilson

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Polls over time

3 polls, through Election Day Nov 3
30%40%50%60%Aug 2026SepOctNovNov 3Public Policy Polling, Jul 16 to Jul 17: Johnson 37Trafalgar Group, Oct 16 to Oct 18: Johnson 36.5Targoz Market Research, Oct 16 to Oct 25: Johnson 41Public Policy Polling, Jul 16 to Jul 17: Wilson 45Trafalgar Group, Oct 16 to Oct 18: Wilson 52.5Targoz Market Research, Oct 16 to Oct 25: Wilson 51Wilson51.8Johnson38.8

Each dot is one published poll. The thick line is the 7-week average, not a forecast. How it’s calculated. All polls. Polls fetched Oct 30, 2:02 a.m. ET, from VoteHub.

The polls in this chart (3)

2 polls released in the last 14 days · latest results range from 36.5–41% (D) and 45–52.5% (R) (newest 3 polls on the chart)

Each dot is a poll with both names, 3 of the 3 for this race. Dots and lines follow the field end date. The table adds the day each poll was released.

Polls shown in the chart, newest field end date first, with the day each was released
PollsterField datesReleasedSampleJohnsonWilson
Targoz Market ResearchOct 16 to Oct 25Oct 27895 likely voters4151
Trafalgar GroupOct 16 to Oct 18Oct 211,095 likely voters36.552.5
Public Policy PollingJul 16 to Jul 17Jul 31577 likely voters3745

Side by side

Johnson left, Wilson right
Years in politics
2
Not available
Age on Election Day
41
53
How these are counted

What changed in this race

Newest first

  1. NEW POLLSouth Carolina Governor

    South Carolina Governor: Alan Wilson 51, Jermaine Johnson 41

    Targoz Market Research, Oct 16 to Oct 25, 895 likely voters · via VoteHub (CC BY 4.0)

All changes

More about this race

Candidates on the ballot

Source: vrems.scvotes.sc.gov, dated Oct 28

Vote in South Carolina

Trouble voting? Election Protection hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE. A nonpartisan coalition of civil-rights and voting-rights groups, not a government service. 866ourvote.org

Official results for South Carolina

History (5 elections for this seat)

All rows: Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 3.1 (2006-2023 governor rows), retrieved Oct 28, 2026

Governor races before 2006 are not loaded yet.

Data notes (14)
  • Source priority per race: (1) a state election office's own certified results parsed in scripts/data/gov_results.py (NJ Division of Elections PDFs, Virginia Department of Elections, the Civera ElectionStats databases run by CT, VA, VT, CO, NY, NM and SC, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, the NC State Board of Elections archive); (2) the open Cha/Kuriwaki/Snyder 'Candidates in American General Elections' file (Harvard Dataverse, CC0), which copies each state's statement of vote; (3) OpenElections county files and the 2020 Dataverse official-results tables, used only to add named candidates the Dataverse file omitted and to add the write-in count; (4) MEDSL precinct sums, used the same way and only when their Democratic and Republican totals agree with the Dataverse rows to 0.3 percent. Each race's source is listed in web/data/sources/gov-results.json.
  • total is the sum of the candidate rows in the file, and pct is votes divided by that total, rounded to one decimal. Blank, void, over and under votes are never in total. Write-in votes are in total as a 'Write-ins' row (writein: true) wherever a source reports them: the official databases, OpenElections, and MEDSL precinct returns. The Dataverse file leaves write-ins out, so MEDSL's write-in sum is added when MEDSL's count for every named candidate equals the Dataverse count exactly (for example AK 2022, 784 write-ins, and AL 2022, 9,432, both matching the state's statement of vote). Each race's source ids are in the race's source and sourceAlso fields and in the gov-results-<st> entry of sources.json.
  • 151 races not taken from a state's own results file have no write-in row. Either the state counted no write-ins, or the sources on file leave them out (MEDSL's precinct sums did not match every named candidate exactly, or MEDSL has no file for that year); where they were left out, total is short by the write-ins and pct can run slightly above the state's printed percentage: AK 2006, AK 2010, AK 2014, AL 2006, AL 2010, AL 2014, AL 2018, AR 2006, AR 2014, AR 2018, AR 2022, AZ 2002, AZ 2014, AZ 2022, CA 2014, CA 2018, CA 2022, DE 2008, DE 2012, DE 2016, DE 2020, DE 2024, GA 2014, GA 2018, HI 2006, HI 2010, HI 2014, HI 2018, HI 2022, IA 2006, IA 2010, IA 2014, ID 1998, ID 2006, ID 2010, ID 2022, IL 2010, IL 2014, IL 2018, IN 2004, IN 2008, IN 2012, IN 2016, IN 2020, KS 2006, KS 2010, KS 2014, KS 2018, KS 2022, KY 2007, KY 2011, KY 2015, KY 2019, LA 2007, LA 2011, LA 2015, LA 2019, LA 2023, MD 2006, MD 2014, MD 2022, ME 2006, ME 2010, ME 2014, ME 2022, MI 2006, MI 2010, MI 2014, MI 2022, MN 2006, MN 2010, MN 2014, MO 2020, MS 2007, MS 2011, MS 2015, MS 2019, MS 2023, MT 2000, MT 2004, MT 2008, MT 2012, MT 2016, MT 2020, MT 2024, ND 2008, NE 2006, NE 2010, NE 2014, NE 2018, NE 2022, NH 2008, NH 2010, NH 2012, NH 2014, NH 2024, NM 2010, NV 2006, NV 2010, NV 2014, NV 2018, NV 2022, OH 2014, OH 2018, OK 2006, OK 2010, OK 2014, OK 2018, OK 2022, OR 2006, OR 2010, OR 2014, OR 2018, OR 2022, PA 2002, PA 2006, PA 2010, PA 2014, PA 2018, PA 2022, RI 2006, RI 2010, RI 2014, SC 2006, SD 2006, SD 2010, SD 2014, SD 2018, SD 2022, TX 2014, TX 2018, TX 2022, UT 2008, UT 2010, UT 2012, UT 2020, WA 2008, WA 2012, WA 2016, WI 2006, WI 2010, WI 2014, WI 2018, WV 2008, WV 2011, WV 2012, WV 2016, WV 2020, WV 2024, WY 2002, WY 2006.
  • party is D, R, I, L, G, O or N from the party label in the source; party_label keeps the source's wording. The Dataverse file prints short labels (Lbt, Grn, Const, DFL, NPA); those are expanded to Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Democratic-Farmer-Labor and No Party Affiliation. Fusion candidates (NY, CT, SC, and the Democratic-Progressive line in VT) are one candidate with all of their ballot lines added together.
  • Names: the Dataverse file stores 'LAST, FIRST MIDDLE (NICKNAME), SUFFIX'; the display name uses the nickname when there is one (Josh Shapiro, Bob Riley) and otherwise the given names. All-caps source names were title-cased by rule and can be wrong for internal capitals (DiGiulio, DeWine). Official lists that print only surnames (NJ 1997; MA tickets from 2010 on) take the full name from the Dataverse row of the same race where the surname and party match, otherwise stay surname-only.
  • incumbent is true or false only for races built from the Dataverse file (it carries an incumbency code; code 3, a governor who succeeded to the office, is treated as incumbent). It is null for official-source races and for candidates added from OpenElections or MEDSL.
  • Louisiana uses an open primary with a runoff. One race per election is stored: the round that decided it (the October primary when someone won more than 50 percent, otherwise the November runoff, marked runoff:true). Exact dates for those rounds come from the Dataverse/official files where present and are set in the script otherwise (LA_DATES); check them before showing a date.
  • Recall elections (Wisconsin June 2012, California September 2021) are not included. Only regular and special general elections for the office are stored; primaries and runoff primaries are not.
  • scripts/data/federal_results.py, if it is re-run, rewrites every web/data/results/governor/{ST}.json to []. Run scripts/data/gov_results.py after it, or remove build_governor() from that script.
  • SC: No governor general-election result in this file for 4 of 9 expected election years between 1990 and 2025: 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002. No open or official bulk source was found and parsed for them yet; they are gaps, not zeroes.
  • 2006: built from the Dataverse candidates file only; no second source agreed with it at candidate level, so a minor-party candidate who is missing from that file would be missing here too
  • Candidate name is the sitting governor's officials-file spelling for 16 rows (the race's winner, same state, race within the governor's tenure, same surname and a compatible first name). Text encoding and casing are repaired by scripts/data/names.py.
  • Governor races earlier than the first year listed are not loaded yet for 50 states (AK from 2006; AL from 2006; AR from 2002; AZ from 2002; CA from 2002; CO from 1990; CT from 1990; DE from 2008; FL from 1990; GA from 2002; HI from 2006; IA from 2002; ID from 1994; IL from 2006; IN from 2004; KS from 2006; KY from 2007; LA from 2007; MA from 1990; MD from 2006; ME from 2006; MI from 2006; MN from 2006; MO from 2008; MS from 2007; MT from 2000; NC from 1992; ND from 2008; NE from 2006; NH from 2006; NJ from 1993; NM from 2002; NV from 2006; NY from 1994; OH from 2002; OK from 2006; OR from 2006; PA from 2002; RI from 2006; SC from 2006; SD from 2006; TN from 2002; TX from 1994; UT from 2008; VA from 1993; VT from 1990; WA from 2008; WI from 2006; WV from 2000; WY from 2002). The sources on file start later; nothing was filled in from memory. Each governor page says so under History.
  • 1 duplicate candidate rows merged: a 0-vote placeholder row beside the real row is dropped. governor/CO 2022 Paul Noël Fiorino

Download and cite

Cite this page

Election Wrld. (2026). Governor of South Carolina. https://www.electionwrld.com/sc/governor. Retrieved October 30, 2026.

Sources

Sources

Make your pick in the map maker

DataState data (JSON)Sources: Cha, Kuriwaki and Snyder, Candidates in American General Elections, version 3.1 (2006-2023 governor rows), VoteHub polls (CC BY 4.0), Photo of Alan Wilson: South Carolina National Guard, Public domainData as of Oct 28, 2026

Where this sits

Governors2426Governors: 24 Democratic, 26 Republican.