June ended with two runoff nights that closed out the South’s primary season — and quietly recalibrated the most-watched statistic in Republican politics: President Trump’s endorsement record.
South Carolina Governor: Wilson by a Mile
On June 9, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette finished first with Trump’s sole endorsement. Two weeks later, she lost the runoff by roughly two-to-one.
SC Governor — GOP Runoff · June 23
Attorney General Alan Wilson’s rout was built on consolidation: the voters of eliminated June 9 candidates — Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, and businessman Mark Reddy — broke overwhelmingly his way. Mace, who conceded on primary night saying she “chose to stand on principle and stand against the Epstein cover-up,” endorsed Wilson in the runoff.
The most revealing move came from the White House. On June 19 — four days before the runoff, with Wilson’s lead apparent — Trump issued a co-endorsement of Wilson while nominally standing by Evette. When Wilson won, the president could claim the winner; had Evette somehow rallied, he’d have backed her first. After GOP primary voters rejected his picks in the Iowa and Georgia governor races earlier in June, the hedge was unmistakable: the endorsement record is now being actively managed.
Wilson faces state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who won the Democratic primary outright on June 9 with about 60%. South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 2003 — this stays Safe R.
Louisiana: The Last Domino Falls
LA Senate — GOP Runoff · June 27
Rep. Julia Letlow’s 13.8-point runoff win over state Treasurer John Fleming completed a project Trump began the day Bill Cassidy voted to convict him in February 2021. Cassidy — ousted in the May 16 primary — was the last of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict after January 6 to face electoral consequences, and the first elected incumbent senator to lose renomination since Richard Lugar in 2012, a distinction he now shares with John Cornyn.
In her victory speech, Letlow called Trump “the greatest president this country has ever had.” On the Democratic side, Tensas Parish farmer Jamie Davis won his runoff with more than three-quarters of the vote. The general — Letlow vs. Davis — is Safe R; Letlow is all but certain to join the Senate in January.
SC-01: The Race Nobody’s Watching (Yet)
The most interesting November race to come out of June 23 might be the one Trump skipped entirely. In the Lowcountry district Nancy Mace vacated to run for governor:
SC-01 — GOP Runoff · June 23
SC-01 — Dem Runoff · June 23
Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt beat state Rep. Mark Smith for the GOP nod, while retired Navy Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore — fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in 2025, a credential she’s turned into a $1.6 million fundraising engine — edged Coast Guard veteran Mac Deford.
The general is set: Honeycutt vs. Lacore in an R+6 district that is South Carolina’s most competitive — and whoever wins, the seat stays represented by a woman. If Democratic special-election overperformance carries into November, this is the kind of district where it shows up first.
Also decided June 23: Upstate Solicitor David Stumbo won the GOP runoff for the attorney general’s office Wilson vacated (~55–45 over state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch; he faces Democrat Richard Hricik), and Air Force veteran Zyon Khalifa won the SC-02 Democratic runoff 54–46 for the right to challenge Rep. Joe Wilson.
The Trump Scoreboard, Updated
Trump-Endorsed Candidates — Contested June Primaries & Runoffs
The pattern that emerged in June: Trump’s endorsement remains close to determinative in Senate primaries — Paxton, Collins, Moore, Hern, and Letlow all won, several from behind. In governor primaries, where voters seem to weigh state-level considerations more heavily, his picks went 0-for-2 outright and required a late hedge in South Carolina. That split is worth remembering when his fall endorsements start rolling out in the open governor races in Michigan, Arizona, Kansas, and Florida.
What’s Next
- By July 27: Maine Democrats’ convention picks a replacement Senate nominee — full story here
- July 28: South Dakota GOP governor runoff — Doeden vs. Gov. Rhoden
- August 4: CA-01 special election; Michigan, Arizona, and Kansas primaries
- August 18: Alaska’s top-four Senate primary; Florida primaries; CA-14 special
- August 25: Oklahoma Democratic Senate runoff
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