Three men are on the ballot for the office of Governor in the upcoming SC Democratic Primary, which is scheduled for June 9.
Candidates for the nomination are Charleston lawyer Mullins McLeod; Billy Webster, a Greenville-based businessman and former Secretary of Education Dick Riley’s chief of staff; and current SC House member Jermaine Johnson, who serves House District 52, which includes parts of Kershaw and Richland counties.
Of the three candidates, Johnson is the only one whose campaign website includes any issue of concern for LGBTQ+ voters. He has been a long-time advocate for what is popularly called “Hate Crime” legislation.
Johnson also recently voted against H.3557, a Republican sponsored bill innocuously titled, “South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act,” which forbids trans students from using any public school restroom or changing facility that does not correspond to their biological and clinically verified birth sex.
Two Democrats, Reps. Jackie Hayes and Leon Gilliam, joined House Republicans in passing that bill.
Johnson is one of the sponsors of SC House Bill H3039, the “Senator Clementa C. Pickney Hate Crimes Act,” originally introduced into the House in January 2025.
Driven in part by the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting, a racially motivated massacre of nine church members, including the late Senator Pickney, the proposed bill also includes crimes motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias.
Johnson has expressed frustration at the protracted, uphill battle to see enhanced penalty (hate crimes) legislation passed in South Carolina. The state is one of only two in the country without such state-wide legislation. Wyoming, site of the brutal and deadly 1998 attack on University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, is the other.
Quoted in a 2025 Charleston station, ABCNews4 report, Johnson expressed his continued frustration with SC lawmakers. “We’ve allowed people to skate on by,” said Johnson. “We’ve allowed them to skate on by with zero accountability, without anyone challenging them, but I can assure you that this is a new day.”
The 68-year-old Webster, co-founder of the predatory lending company, Advance America, is a late entry into the race, announcing in late March. Advance America was sold in 2011 for $780 million.
McLeod’s campaign almost ended with a scandal surrounding his May 2025 arrest in Charleston. According to a report on ABC4 News, Charleston police found McLeod walking along the Battery wearing only his underwear and shoes and yelling loudly.
No LGBTQ+ issues are listed as “priorities” on Webster’s campaign website.
While the “Elderly” and homelessness made the cut for McLeod’s platform, LGBTQ+ people are nowhere to be found.
For LGBTQ+ concerns, one has to look at Johnson’s campaign website and voting history.
Latest polling by SC Policy Council, conducted before Webster entered into the race, had Johnson with a 17-point lead over McLeod.
If Johnson wins the primary, he will be faced with the Herculean task of being elected in a very red state.