Chief of Staff to Gov. Riley Becomes 3rd Democrat in SC Governor’s Race

Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette

An Upstate businessman who worked for former Gov. Dick Riley and in the Clinton administration has shaken up the Democratic primary for governor.

Billy Webster, 68, of Greenville, highlighted his experience in Washington and as an executive as he officially launched his bid Wednesday. He becomes the third Democrat trying to flip the governor’s office blue for the first time in 28 years.

“If you look at the folks in this race so far, I’m the only one who’s prepared and experienced for this job,” Webster told reporters at a Columbia Bojangles where he said his career began.

He held the news conference shortly after filing his candidacy with the State Election Commission.

“All the important lessons I learned about business, I learned right back there in that kitchen,” he said, before going back into the kitchen to prove he could still make a Cajun Filet Biscuit with cheese.

After working at a Bojangles restaurant owned by his family, Webster became president of a Bojangles franchisee before going to work in Washington in the ‘90s under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

He joins two Democrats who announced their campaigns last year: state Rep. Jermaine Johnson of rural Richland County, who filed his candidacy paperwork last Monday, and Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod, who filed earlier.

Webster, a father of six, touted himself as someone who can work across the aisle. Citing problems including rising costs and medical bills, he called himself the only person who “looks at these issues through the lens of solving a problem — not Democrat problems, not Republican problems.”

He went to Washington in 1992 as a White House fellow during President George H.W. Bush’s administration.

He was chief of staff to Riley in South Carolina and Washington — during Riley’s tenure as governor (the state’s last two-term Democrat in the governor’s office) and later when Riley became President Bill Clinton’s education secretary. Webster then worked as an assistant and director of scheduling for Clinton.

From 1997 to 2011, Webster was chief executive at Advance America, a payday lending company. He teaches health care policy at Wofford College as an adjunct professor.

He said he wanted to expand Medicaid, despite the idea not being popular in the South Carolina Legislature, by pitching an expansion “from a revenue-generation perspective.”

“This can be done, but it has to be done with Republicans and Democrats together,” he said.

On social media Friday, Johnson addressed rumors that party insiders were pressuring him to step aside for Webster. In a video posted on Instagram and Facebook, the only Black candidate in the gubernatorial field said he’d considered dropping out and even prepared a statement about his departure.

“I tore that statement up,” he said, vowing to instead stay in the race. “Let’s make sure we don’t allow these outside pressures to continue coming in and trying to say that South Carolina isn’t ready for a Black man to be governor.”

He filed to run last Monday.

Johnson, first elected to the state House in 2020, said in January he would not seek re-election to that Statehouse seat as well. (State law allows candidates to seek more than one office at the same time. They just can’t occupy more than one if they win multiple races.) He said then he wanted to focus on his campaign for governor.

Webster told reporters the push for Johnson to drop out didn’t come from him.

Calling Johnson a “good man,” Webster said, “I welcome the chance to talk about what I believe and my experience with the other two candidates that are in the race.”

South Carolina Democratic Party executive director Jay Parmley told the SC Daily Gazette he’s excited to see competition for the Democratic nomination.

“It just shows that there’s life, that there’s momentum, that there’s excitement, that there’s interest,” he said. “Now we’ve got a lot of activity on our side, and I think that is only good for South Carolina voters.”

Six Republicans have announced bids to replace term-limited Gov. Henry McMaster.

The primaries to choose the Republican and Democratic nominees are June 9.