Women On The Ballot: all Lt. Governor nominees are women

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)– The November election is quickly approaching and the nominees are campaigning hard.  Especially the Lt. governor nominees. No matter how the election goes in November, South Carolina will have a woman as Lt. Governor which has only happened once before in state history.

The two women are very different. On one hand, you have a woman with years of experience in the statehouse, and on the other, you have a businesswoman who has never been in public office but runs her own company.  

This is the first year the law changed so that gubernatorial candidates pick their running mates– and both the democratic and republican nominees selected a woman to be their right-hand man.

“We need everybody’s perspective in Government. And the female perspective has been traditionally very much underrepresented, as have many minority perspectives in our state,” Mandy Powers Norrell, Democratic Lt. Governor nominee said.

James Smith’s pick, Powers Norrell has experience working at the statehouse already. The South Carolina native has been a municipal attorney for 20 years and a state representative since 2013.

“I’m uniquely qualified to do that because I’ve been drafting legislation for the past 6 years and I have the relationships,” Power Norrells said.

On Republican Governor Henry McMaster’s team, Pamela Evette is president and CEO of her own company. She said she is the best fit for the job because she brings a fresh set of eyes.

“I really want to be impactful. I want to take what I learned in business from the last 18 years of owning my business, and then before that as an accountant for other businesses and I want to bring that and use that to help with economic development,” Evette said.

Whoever is elected will be following the footsteps of Nancy Stevenson, who was the first woman to be Lt. Gov. in the state. And while they are big shoes to fill, the nominees are excited to blaze the trail for more girls to get into leadership roles.

“The notion that this will be commonplace for them when they are my age, you know we won’t be fighting for, I hope, women’s representation. We won’t have such a small percentage of our governing body being made up of women,” Powers Norrell said.

“Never be afraid to do anything. The worst thing isn’t failing, it’s regret. So always go for your dreams. Don’t let anybody stop you,” Evette said. 

 Remember to vote on November 6.