SC-Gov: South Carolina just traded its first non-white governor for a new chief executive who refuses to leave his all-white country club.
On Tuesday, Gov. Nikki Haley was confirmed by the Senate and resigned to become Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations; shortly thereafter, Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster was sworn in as the Palmetto State’s new governor, bringing some remarkable baggage that he adamantly refuses to shed.
During his 2014 campaign for lieutenant governor, Bakari Sellers, who was McMaster’s Democratic opponent that year, called for McMaster to resign from Forest Lake Club, a country club that Sellers said had only white members. Indeed, two Republican legislators confirmed they couldn’t say whether Forest Lake had any black members at all. The State reported at the time that unnamed sources claimed “an interracial couple” was on the club’s “waiting list for membership,” as if that meant everything was fine. But the story didn’t stop McMaster from beating Sellers 59-41.
McMaster remains a member in good standing of Forest Lake to this day, and that’s not changing. Last week, McMaster’s office told The State that he has no plans to end his three-decade association with the club, and his fellow Republicans don’t seem to be in any hurry to get McMaster to change his mind. In fact, state Sen. John Courson, another Forest Lake member, defended the incoming governor’s membership, saying he not only doesn’t “perceive it to be an issue” but adding, “It has not been perceived to be an issue in any of my nine Senate campaigns.” Unfortunately, given the way GOP politics has been going, Courson probably isn’t wrong.
McMaster will enter the 2018 election with incumbency on his side, but he may not get a smooth ride through the GOP primary. Sen. Tim Scott hasn’t ruled out running against McMaster, and he’s probably the Republican who has the best chance to beat him. Attorney General Alan Wilson and some lesser-known GOP politicians also haven’t said no to a bid.
Of course, South Carolina is a very red state, and while a few Democrats have talked about getting in, no one seems to be in a hurry to run, and McMaster’s involvement with the whites-only Forest Lake doesn’t seem likely to change any minds. For a state that made a huge deal of removing the Confederate flag from its capitol grounds less than two years ago, the lack of concern about—and lack of attention to—this story is as distressing as it is telling.