COLUMBIA -- In the five-way Republican primary for governor, some of the hopefuls were quick to declare victory in the quarterly battle for donor dollars.
Most rushed out press statements touting the various metrics they see as signs their bid is the healthiest in the field.
Between the four who filed their disclosures over the Oct. 11 weekend, a collective $5.09 million in donations was raised from approximately 22,400 entities across the country in the last three months. (Spartanburg state Sen. Josh Kimbrell had not filed as of publication.)
That's where the dissection starts: Some scrutinize which candidate raised the most money from small donors or who has the largest cash reserves, which some see as the most important number to consider when running in a lengthy, competitive race toward their June 2026 GOP primary.
"Everybody looks at it," Hope Walker-Rossi, executive director for the South Carolina House Republican Caucus and a former director of the S.C. Republican Party, said of the campaign fundraising numbers.
The real question is what story those numbers tell.
Where the money comes from
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette's campaign was quick to hail her as the leading fundraiser in the race, which is only partially true.
While she raised $1.4 million to-date in the race, $300,000 of that came from her own checkbook. Likewise, second-place holder U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman's fundraising was aided by the infusion of a half-million dollars from his own estimated $57 million fortune.
Without those loans, it was actually Attorney General Alan Wilson who led in total dollars raised from sources other than his own pocket with $1.29 million. But in doing so, he relied heavily on a small pool of affluent donors, with 309 of them giving the maximum, legally allowable amount of $3,500 per election.
Though Wilson's approach netted him the largest cash haul from individual donors, he did so through the fewest number of donations - 549 - out of the four candidates.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace took a different track, leveraging her national platform fueled by social media notoriety to raise more than $1 million between her campaign launch and Sept. 30 from nearly 20,000 individual sources hailing from as far away as North Dakota and California.
And while just 8 percent of her individual donations came from South Carolina, that share -- 1,672 donations -- accounted for nearly as much as the rest of the field combined, a sign campaign manager Austin McCubbin said on social media showed her populism "is bottom-up."
But top-line numbers require context.
Of the 1,672 in-state donations, a Post and Courier analysis of Mace's campaign finance data delivered 1,009 unique results within that list, indicating many donated multiple times. One North Charleston man, for example, donated to Mace's campaign 24 times, for a total of $271. A Monck's Corner woman donated $1.04 on 11 out of her 19 contributions, for a sum of $35.30. A retired Irmo woman donated 42 separate times, giving $112.72 in total.
Other candidates' money was not necessarily "new" but derived from dormant accounts created when running for another office.
Norman's finances, for instance, included more than $93,000 from a state campaign account from his time in the South Carolina General Assembly representing House District 48. Wilson's fundraising numbers also included some $260,000 -- 22 percent of his total haul -- transferred from his state attorney general campaign account, each cent of which required the consent of the original donor.
"Every single transfer required permission," Wilson's campaign noted in an internal memo. "Alan had to pick up the phone and have a conversation. He did it."
Regional dominance
By dollar amount, Mace's approach allowed her to keep pace with Wilson's fundraising. But with that approach, Mace's campaign raised just 44 percent of its total from in-state donors like former S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Outside of South Carolina, 61 total donors representing fields from cattle ranching to private equity gave Mace's campaign $3,500 or more, adding up to about $222,500.
The rest of that haul, about $389,000, came from a large pool of donors representing all corners of the U.S.
That said, there were areas within the state where Mace dominated. A Post and Courier analysis shows Mace did particularly well in her own backyard of the Lowcountry, where she outraised her next-closest rival there - Wilson - by six figures.
Like Mace, the rest of the field appeared to lock up their home regions.
Norman, who hails from Rock Hill, took in nearly $424,000 from the S.C. towns around the North Carolina border near Charlotte -- a region few other candidates were able to penetrate.
Wilson struggled in the regions up Interstate 77, relying on his home region of the Midlands for roughly 42 percent of his total fundraising haul.
But he showed relative strength throughout the rest of the state, remaining among the top two fundraisers in the Upstate, Pee Dee and the Lowcountry.
Evette, who has homes in both the Greenville and Myrtle Beach areas, relied heavily on donations from both for the majority of her fundraising, helping make up for relatively low returns in the Lowcountry and in the Rock Hill area.
Wealthy candidates and good connections
Campaign finance returns are good for another thing: finding out where allegiances lie.
Wilson earned the race's only contribution to date from steel giant NUCOR, plus the support of casino developer Wallace Cheves -- who also maxed out to Evette -- as he seeks to advance a proposal for a gaming facility in the Lake Marion community of Santee.
Mace's donor list included power players in the Charleston legal community alongside figures like Austin, Texas, startup investor Jay Novik and conservative activist Larry Klayman, a former foil to President Bill Clinton and founder of right-wing advocacy organization Judicial Watch.
Norman received $7,000 from elusive MAGA megadonor Mike Rydin, a former software designer who helped establish the State Freedom Caucus Network and "Camp Rydin" in Maryland, a conference center and guest lodge for conservative members of Congress and their staffers.
Evette dominated in the Greenville business community by garnering big names like Grand Ole Opry co-owner Robert Pedlow and billionaire InterTech CEO Anita Zucker, considered to be the wealthiest woman in South Carolina.
Norman also garnered support via former Gov. Nikki Haley, a longtime ally he endorsed in the 2024 Republican presidential primary over Trump -- and who endorsed him in return when he launched his campaign July 27. Haley's PAC, Stand for America, maxed out on contributions, while his campaign also apparently hired Haley's fundraiser, Allison Meyers, to support his efforts.
Some donors even play both sides: South Carolina House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bruce Bannister, an influential Greenville Republican who endorsed Evette earlier this year, gave her the maximum allowable donation amount, while his Greenville law firm maxed out to Wilson as well as Evette.
Politics reporter Macon Atkinson contributed reporting from Greenville.