The 2026 SC Attorney General Race

 A Choice Between a Corruption Fighter and a Man Whose Federal Felony Vanished

South Carolina Bulletin

May 26, 2026

By Staff Writer

Early voting in South Carolina’s statewide primaries opens today, Tuesday, May 26 and runs through Friday, June 5, with polls open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at early voting centers in every county. The Republican primary for Attorney General on June 9 has shaped up as the most consequential down ballot contest of the cycle, pitting three candidates with starkly different records against each other in a race that is fundamentally about whether the AG’s office becomes a watchdog or remains an extension of the Statehouse power structure. Stephen Goldfinch leads the money race with approximately $877,000 raised and $651,000 cash on hand, fueled by healthcare systems, PACs, developers, and the institutional GOP apparatus but he carries the dead weight of a federal felony charge from his Caledonia Consulting stem cell operation that was dismissed in 2017 under suspicious circumstances after the FDA admitted destroying its own evidence and the case sat dormant for four years. David Stumbo, the Eighth Circuit Solicitor, is running the traditional law and order lane but is currently under active State Ethics Commission investigation for allegedly paying himself $36,700 in fixed monthly mileage checks from his office account over 35 consecutive months payments no other solicitor in the state reported. David Pascoe, the First Circuit Solicitor who switched from Democrat to Republican in 2025, has raised a respectable $472,000 but is decidedly outgunned financially. However, a recent independent CC News Network poll of over 1,474 verified Republican voters showed him dominating the field with nearly 63% support more than doubling his closest competitor suggesting that grassroots enthusiasm and name recognition from his Probe gate corruption prosecutions which took down the House Speaker, Senate President, two Majority Leaders, and the Judiciary Chairman may outweigh Goldfinch’s institutional money advantage. With early voting now underway, the central question is whether the Republican base will side with the establishment’s well funded candidate who was prepared to plead guilty to a federal felony or the prosecutor who’s already proven he’ll put corrupt politicians in prison, regardless of party.

Here’s what voters need to know before June 9. https://samueleburns.substack.com/p/the-2026-sc-attorney-general-race