List of governors of South Carolina


This is a list of South Carolina governors. The current governor of South Carolina is Henry McMaster who has been in office since January 24, 2017. South Carolina governors are counted only once; therefore, Joseph West, for instance, a colonial governor who served three non-consecutive terms, is considered the 2nd Governor of South Carolina, not the 2nd, 4th, and 7th. There have been 11 governors who served non-consecutive terms. In addition to West, the others were Joseph Morton, Joseph Blake, Robert Johnson, William Bull II, Lord Charles Montagu, John Rutledge, William Moultrie, Charles Pinckney, John Drayton, and Olin D. Johnston.

Colonial period (1670–1775)

Statehood period (1776–present)

Presidents under the Articles of Confederation

The General Assembly chose the president for a term of two years.
;Parties

Governors under the Articles of Confederation

The General Assembly chose the governor for a term of two years.
; Parties

Governors under the Constitution of 1790

The General Assembly chose the governor for a term of two years.
; Parties

Post-Civil War Governors through the present

Governors are elected at-large
; Parties

Timeline of Recent Party Control

The timeline below depicts the party control of the governorship since 1970.

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:130 left:20
AlignBars = late
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1970 till:04/26/2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1970
Colors =
id:canvas value:gray
id:REP value:red legend:Republican_Party
id:DEM value:blue legend:Democratic_Party
Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:40 columnwidth:150
TextData =
pos: textcolor:black fontsize:M
text:"Political parties:"
BarData =
barset:PM
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:PM
from: 01/19/1971 till: 01/21/1975 color:DEM text:"West" fontsize:10
from: 01/21/1975 till: 01/10/1979 color:REP text:"Edwards" fontsize:10
from: 01/10/1979 till: 01/14/1987 color:DEM text:"Riley" fontsize:10
from: 01/14/1987 till: 01/11/1995 color:REP text:"Campbell" fontsize:10
from: 01/11/1995 till: 01/13/1999 color:REP text:"Beasley" fontsize:10
from: 01/13/1999 till: 01/15/2003 color:DEM text:"Hodges" fontsize:10
from: 01/15/2003 till: 01/12/2011 color:REP text:"Sanford" fontsize:10
from: 01/12/2011 till: 01/24/2017 color:REP text:"Haley" fontsize:10
from: 01/24/2017 till: end color:REP text:"McMaster" fontsize:10

Party affiliation

Other high offices held

This is a table of congressional seats, other federal offices, other governorships, and other high offices held by governors after leaving office. All representatives and senators mentioned represented South Carolina except where noted. *denotes those offices which the governor resigned to take.

Living former governors of South Carolina

, there are five former governors currently living, the oldest being Richard Riley. The most recent governor to die was Fritz Hollings, on April 6, 2019. The most recently serving governor to die was Carroll A. Campbell Jr. on December 7, 2005.
GovernorPartyGubernatorial termBirth
Richard RileyDemocratic1979-1987
David BeasleyRepublican1995-1999
Jim HodgesDemocratic1999-2003
Mark SanfordRepublican2003-2011
Nikki HaleyRepublican2011-2017