By Matthew Christian, originally posted by the Aiken Standard on May 28, 2025
AIKEN — A potential Republican gubernatorial nominee supports changes to how most judges are elected in the Palmetto State and efforts to make South Carolina’s government more efficient.
Lt. Governor Pamela Evette was asked about both topics during a question-and-answer session at a May 27 Aiken Republican Republican Club meeting at Newberry Hall.
“Do you support changing the election of judges by the legislature and can it be done in South Carolina,” an anonymous person asked Evette via an index card.
The 170-member South Carolina General Assembly elects South South Carolina Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Court and Family Court judges. The governor nominates and the Senate confirms magistrate judges and masters-in-equity. Probate court judges are elected by popular vote.
Evette said she supported a system in which the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Court and Family Court judges would be nominated by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
“The governor should appoint and the Senate should confirm and when you do that it pretty much falls on the back of of one person,” Evette continued.
If implemented in the Palmetto State, the nomination-and-confirmation process would mirror how federal judges are selected.
“Like the governor has said… I believe the federal system is really, really good,” Evette said.
There are concerns that the lawyer-legislators serving in the South Carolina General Assembly — in 2023, 46% of the state’s senators and 27% of the state’s representatives were lawyers — could slow or stall the process to preserve the current system.
“Well, we said tort reform couldn’t be done, but it got done this year,” Evette continued. “So, I think anything can happen.”
Another anonymous question writer asked Evette about the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid.
“Medicaid was never meant to give to non-U.S. citizens and that’s what they’re stopping,” Evette said.
Evette added that she’s a huge fan of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m an accountant by trade for all of you who don’t know,” Evette said.
Evette and her husband, David, founded Quality Business Solutions, an Upstate firm that helps businesses with accounting and human resources.
“I used to call it efficiency when I was in public accounting,” Evette said. “I worked with companies to learn how to be efficient… and utilize the money that they had to grow their businesses. That’s what President Trump is doing now. That’s what Elon Musk is doing now.”
The state of South Carolina is constitutionally mandated to have a balanced budget — expenses are equal to revenues — unlike the federal government, Evette continued. And the state’s rainy day fund is as big as it’s ever been, she added.
“I don’t believe that we are sending money to foreign entities to do Sesame Street and some weird language that I don’t even know,” Evette said.
The U.S. Agency for International Development provided $20 million to fund an Iraqi version of the popular children’s program, Musk said earlier this year. The DOGE team has eliminated that grant but there are still several legal challenges to DOGE’s actions ongoing.
“But can we be more efficient? Yes,” Evette said. “The best of companies will tell you they can always run more efficiently. Should we leverage AI? Should we leverage technology? Absolutely we should. Because that’s how you save money.”
Making the state more efficient is part of the path to lower and eliminate the state’s income tax rates, Evette said.
“I have said forever, I want to see South Carolina be a zero-state income tax state,” she added. “But you have to be able to do that by being efficient, right? You have to be able to walk and chew your gum at the same time.”
Evette is one of several candidates considering a bid for the 2026 Republican nomination.
Other potential candidates include S.C. Sens. Sean Bennett and Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson.
Filing for the nomination will open next March. The primary and any needed runoffs will be held next June.