South Carolina runoff pits Trump candidate against GOP governor’s endorsement

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Longtime friends former President Donald Trump and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster are on opposite sides as voters on Tuesday in the state’s 3rd Congressional District choose their Republican nominee.

Also at stake in the primary runoffs in South Carolina is whether the last of the state’s three Republican women, known as the “Sister Senators” survives after they stood against a total abortion ban.

In upstate South Carolina, McMaster is backing nurse practitioner Sheri Biggs, the wife of a political confidant and regular donor. Trump is backing Mark Burns, a Black pastor who has been by his side for nearly a decade.

Both candidates haven’t held political office before and the winner in the runoff is a heavy favorite to beat a Democrat and a third party candidate in the most Republican district in GOP-dominated South Carolina.

McMaster and Trump go back a long way. McMaster was the nation’s first statewide elected official to back Trump in early 2016. Trump said when he became president 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.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> RELATED COVERAGE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Abortion access has won when it’s been on the ballot. That’s not an option for half the states </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Tax cuts, teacher raises and a few social issues in South Carolina budget compromise </bsp-custom-headline>