early voting

Polls closed at 7 p.m. in the race to be the GOP's Senate nominee. This story will update throughout the day.

In three days of early voting, 61,775 South Carolinians cast a ballot in the race to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham as the GOP nominee.

South Carolinians have only been able to visit polls early in person since 2022, and each round of primaries has seen more people participate than the last.

Early voting centers close at 5 p.m. Friday.

Attorney Mullins McLeod, state Rep. Jermaine Johnson and businessman Billy Webster answered questions ranging from immigration enforcement to data center policy at an hour-long SCETV-hosted debate.

Kimbrell, who represents parts of Spartanburg County, announced the end of his run for governor in a social media video. The decision comes with two days left in early voting and less than a week until the June 9 primary election.

A trio of U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell participated. Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Attorney General Alan Wilson and businessman Rom Reddy canceled ahead of the debate.

More than 44,000 people had voted early as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to the South Carolina Election Commission. The figure is a new state record for turnout on a single day of early primary voting. The previous single-day state high was 23,000 votes in 2024.

Polls will be open for early voting from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays until Friday, June 5.

Next week early voting begins for the 2026 South Carolina primary election.