South Carolina 2022 primary election results

South Carolina voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in primaries for the governor, Senate, House of Representatives and the state legislature. Polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.

Candidate needed at least 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff on June 28. According to the South Carolina Election Commission, nearly 80,000 people voted early in the June primaries.

State Significance

The GOP primary ballot included two Donald Trump-endorsed candidates, Katie Arrington and Russell Fry, take on Republican incumbent Reps. Nancy Mace and Tim Rice -- who drew Trump's ire for criticizing him after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"I am trying to communicate to my colleagues in Congress that rhetoric has real consequences." Mace said on ABC News Live on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rice was widely believed to be one of the GOP representatives most at risk in one of the contests Trump has said are among "two of the most critical primary elections in the country."

Mace, the freshman member of Congress who just days into her term condemned Trump's claims about the presidential election being stolen, waschallenged by cybersecurity analyst Arrington, a former state representative whom Trump called a "true Republican."

For her part, Mace was endorsed by former Trump ambassador and two-term South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the race for the state's 1st district seat. Paramedic and fringe candidate Lynz Piper-Loomis was also on the ballot.

In South Carolina's 7th Congressional District, state Rep. Russell Fry got the endorsement of Trump against five-term Rep. Rice, who consistently defended his impeachment vote in the wake of Jan. 6 and his condemnation of Trump's role in the insurrection.

Rice's break with Trump is notable as his district has displayed staunch support for the former president: It voted for Trump by a 19-point margin in 2020.

ABC News' ​​Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl recently spoke with Rice about his reelection bid and decision to impeach Trump. Rice told Karl that he stood by his choice -- calling it "the conservative vote."

But even though Rice supported the impeachment of Trump, he still voted with him 169 times out of 184.

Meanwhile. five Democratic candidates battled Tuesday for South Carolina's gubernatorial seat, including former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham and state Sen. Mia McLeod, who's the first Black woman ever to run for governor of South Carolina.

Cunningham is a more moderate Democrat who narrowly lost reelection for South Carolina's 1st district in 2020, against Mace.

Cunningham earned the endorsement of state House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford. Following the announcement, McLeod tweeted to express her anger about the endorsement and accused Rutherford of not endorsing her because she did not appoint his wife as magistrate.

Other candidates in the race included William H. Williams, Calvin McMillan and Carlton Boyd.

In the general election, incumbent Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is favored to win reelection. The last time a Democrat won the state's governor's race was in 1998.