AP Decision Notes: What to expect in South Carolina’s state primary runoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of South Carolina’s top officeholders will compete one-on-one for the Republican nomination for governor in a primary runoff election on Tuesday. Voters will also select nominees for a handful of congressional races and other contests in which no candidate received a majority of the vote in the June 9 primary.

The Republican gubernatorial runoff features two-term Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, son of Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson. President Donald Trump announced Friday he was endorsing both Evette and Wilson in the runoff.

“I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other,” he said in a Friday evening social media post. Trump had endorsed Evette in the primary over Wilson and five other candidates.

Trump’s picks have had a strong record at the ballot box in 2026, although some recent contests have shown that the president’s backing is not a guarantee of victory. The president’s picks for Iowa governor and Georgia governor lost their nomination bids, while his pick for Oklahoma governor was forced to a runoff after placing second in the June 16 primary.

Evette had Trump's endorsement for the primary but also failed to win the nomination outright. She received 28.9% of the primary vote, narrowly outperforming Wilson, who received 26.1%. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman placed third with 17.1%.

Evette’s best showing was in the Pee Dee region to the northeast along the North Carolina border and the Atlantic Ocean. The region was a strong area for Trump in 2024 and comprised about 15% of the total primary vote. Wilson’s strongest area was in the central core of the state, where Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris ran about even in 2024. The area includes Richland County, home to the state capital of Columbia, and reaches southwest to the Georgia border to include several of the state’s majority Black counties. Collectively, the area made up about 19% of the total primary vote.

A key battleground in the runoff will be the Upcountry region that includes some of the state’s most populous counties, including Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson. Evette was the top vote-getter in this area, although the margin between first-place Evette and third-place Norman was less than 2 percentage points.

The eventual Republican nominee will face Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who won the nomination outright in the primary. Democrats last won the governorship in 1998.

The winner in November will succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has endorsed Evette. Regardless of party, his replacement will likely play a key role in the early stages of the 2028 presidential race, with the state expected to once again hold critical first-in-the-South presidential primaries.

Placing a distant fifth in the gubernatorial primary was U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a one-time staunch Trump ally who broke with the president in calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Both the Republican and Democratic primaries to replace her in the 1st Congressional District were forced to a runoff.

The Republican finalists are Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt and state Rep. Mark Smith. The Democratic finalists are former Hilton Head Island general counsel and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Mac Deford and retired Navy Vice Admiral and former Navy Reserve Chief Nancy Lacore. Honeycutt had a 4-point lead over Smith in the Republican primary, while Lacore outperformed Deford by nearly 8 points in the Democratic primary.

Trump carried the 1st District in 2024 with about 56%, compared to about 43% for Harris.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in primary runoffs for U.S. House, governor, attorney general, agriculture commissioner and state House.

Voters who cast a ballot in a partisan primary on June 9 may only vote in the runoff of the same party as they did in the primary. In other words, Democratic primary voters may not vote in a Republican primary runoff or vice versa. Registered voters who did not participate in a party primary on June 9 may vote in the runoff for either party.

As of Saturday, there were about 3.4 million registered voters in South Carolina. Voters in South Carolina do not register by party.

About 473,000 voters cast ballots in the June 9 Republican primary for governor.

The total number of voters in a runoff tends to be smaller than in the preceding primary. In the last Republican primary runoff for governor in 2018, the number of voters fell about 7% from the primary. The drop-off was about 14% in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial runoff.

The two statewide primary runoffs in 2022 had much starker drops. The number of Republican runoff voters for state school superintendent fell by 47% compared to the primary. Total voters in the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff was 74% less than in the primary.

About 52% of the Democratic primary vote and about 29% of the Republican primary vote in the June 9 primaries was cast early in-person or by mail.

As of the end of the state's two-day early voting period on Thursday, about 63,200 Republican ballots and about 9,300 Democratic ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

Nearly all of South Carolina’s 46 counties release all or almost all of their early in-person and mail voting results in the first vote update of the night, usually before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting.

In the June 9 primary, the AP first reported results at 7:20 p.m. ET, or 20 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:19 a.m. ET with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

In South Carolina, recounts are automatic if the margin between the winning and losing candidates is 1% of the total vote or less. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 133 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette arrives to speak at an election night watch party after advancing to a GOP primary runoff in the governor's race on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — World Cup tickets are expensive. Flights to North America are expensive. Hotel rooms in many places are expensive.

Then there's the price of beer.

There are some fun — and yes, sometimes pricey — food and drink offerings at the venues playing host to the World Cup. A $75 caviar-topped tray of tater tots and a $40 empanada weighing in at 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms) for the daring or for sharing in Miami. Rib-eye tacos for $8 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Something called a Twinkie cheeseburger that has nothing to do with dessert for $22 in Los Angeles.

Prices, in many cases, aren't all that different from what U.S. fans would experience on NFL Sundays or college football Saturdays. But some international fans aren't used to such pricing and are calling foul, especially over beer prices that can top $20.

“It's unfair. It's not right. It's wrong,” said Thomas Schüller, an engineer from Germany in Toronto to watch his national team play over the weekend, as he held a beer that cost him 24.25 Canadian dollars (about $17 or 15 euros). “It's three times the cost of what I pay in my country.”

But is that stopping him?

“Well, no,” Schüller acknowledged.

There is clearly some sticker shock among international visitors to this World Cup, especially when it comes to the concession prices. In Europe, it's not uncommon for beers to be perhaps around 4 or 5 euros (about $5-6).

There's also no shortage of intrigue on the menu at the concession stands at stadiums across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“Never seen anything like it,” said Janine Arbetter, a fan from Austria, as she waited for a hot dog, chips and soda combo in Miami last week. The pre-tip price: $19.35 (about 17 euros), which included a discount for using Visa. “It's a lot of food for a little snack.”

Some Argentina fans happily showed off their $34 lobster rolls from a match in Kansas City on social media, but in Toronto, the brisket sandwich with chips and a bottle of soda for nearly 40 Canadian dollars ($28) had some online commenters lamenting it as “robbery.”

“It's OK, more or less, for the World Cup,” German fan Daniel Feldmann said of the food prices while watching a match in Vancouver last week.

FIFA, the sport's governing body and the tournament organizer, has very specific rules on just about everything related to the World Cup — and there are guidelines that concessionaires have to follow as well. But prices can vary by market, as do the food and drink offerings. And that means the experience in one city might look, or taste, nothing like what's offered in another.

The “Fancy AF Tots” for $75 at Miami Stadium aren't really tots at all — it's three deep-fried hash brown patties, with caviar, creme fraiche and chives. (For those who just want the caviar, it'll be $70.) Southern California's Twinkie cheeseburger is in fact a burger topped with a Texas Twinkie — a bacon-wrapped jalapeño stuffed with brisket and cream cheese.

But there's also a slew of choices specific to a local market; for example, Vancouver offers short rib poutine (an iconic Canadian dish of fries loaded with beef gravy, pulled short rib and cheese curds) along with a maple bacon smokie (smoked sausage topped with bacon onion jam that features Canadian maple syrup).

And in Miami, the signature offerings include pan con lechon (a Cuban-style sandwich with pork, infused with citrus mojo sauce and served on a toasted full Cuban loaf) and Empanada Mundial (the five-pound, handmade, chicken-and-cheese-stuffed dish named after the World Cup).

Both Vancouver and Miami have Sodexo Live as a food and beverage provider, and the typical game-day menus in both stadiums were revised a bit to accommodate a soccer crowd.

“We want it to feel like Miami when you’re here,” said Zach Williams, Sodexo Live's vice president of operations at Miami Stadium. “Everything we do around the Miami Stadium, we want to make sure everybody understands that when they come here, they’re getting a Miami experience.”

In Mexico City, a beer could cost a day's pay — literally. The daily minimum wage in Mexico City is just 315.04 pesos (roughly $18). Some beers at Mexico City Stadium were selling for between 299 and 310 pesos — about twice as much as fans would ordinarily pay in the same stadium when the World Cup isn't in town.

But in Atlanta, where Falcons owner and stadium operator Arthur Blank promised the low concession prices he's championed for many years would hold for the World Cup, pizza slices were $3, 32-ounce sodas were $4, a cheeseburger was $5, chicken tenders with fries were $6 and beers could be had for as little as $8.

Jonathan Arango, a 33-year-old from Greenville, South Carolina, was at a match in Atlanta with his wife, daughter and father.

“In total for what we got — three orders of tacos, a slice of pizza, two waters and a Coke — we spent like $50,” Arango said. “Compared to what we’ve paid at other events ... it's nice after you paid a lot for a ticket.”

And Schüller pointed out that even though the tournament does come around every four years, it still feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The entire football world is having fun,” Schüller said, “so cheers to that.”

Associated Press journalists Tales Azzoni, Maura Carey, Andrew Dalton, Carlos Rodriguez, Alanis Thames, Stephen Whyno and Ben Kule contributed to this story from various World Cup venues. Kule is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/FIFA-World-Cup

A $75 dish called “Fancy AF Tots” is shown containing fried hash brown potatoes, caviar, crème fraiche and chives at a World Cup match at Miami Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Reynolds)

A Netherlands fan takes a drink on the stands while waiting for the World Cup Group F soccer match between the Netherlands and Sweden in Houston, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Lazaro Luya, the concession chef at Sol Cubano, displays their special, empanada mundial at Miami Stadium Sunday, June 21, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Fans attending the World Cup soccer game between Mexico and South Korea in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, Mexico, Thursday, June 18, 2026, buy food at a concession stand inside Guadalajara Stadium. (AP Photo/Tales Azzoni)

Lazaro Luya, the concession chef at Sol Cubano, displays their special, pan with lechon and fresh mariquitas at Miami Stadium Sunday, June 21, 2026, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)