'Southern Charm' reality star announces bid for South Carolina governor

Bravo's “Southern Charm” reality TV star and former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel announced his South Carolina gubernatorial bid for 2026. 

“I’m running for Governor of South Carolina and none of the lightweights currently in the race are going to stop me,” Ravenel wrote in a Thursday night post on social platform X. “I have a message that’s going to change not just South Carolina but the entire country.” 

Ravenel served as the state treasurer in 2007, but he resigned after being accused of buying cocaine in a federal indictment. He was sentenced to 10 months in jail after pleading guilty to the charges. 

He tried to run for Senate twice — the first time in 2004 and the second in 2014 when he attempted to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) with an independent bid. He told The Hill Friday that he will be running for governor in 2026 as a Republican.

This time, he is hoping to succeed the term-limited South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) by focusing his campaign on two issues: the state’s education system and job creation. 

“We need to, in South Carolina, voucherize the entire system, education system, or allow competition, either through vouchers or through charter schools, which are publicly run, but it allows the charter school to escape all these regulations imposed by the unions in South Carolina,” Ravenel told The Hill in a phone interview Friday. 

“Although we don't have teacher's unions down here, but you know, the Legislature will want to comply with national standards, and those standards are set by the unions, so we need to allow schools the freedom to fire bad teachers, or to innovate, or we have to educate our kids,” the ex-Bravo reality TV star said. 

Ravenel was a cast member of “Southern Charm,” a reality television series that followed Charleston's dating scene.

The show cut ties with the former state treasurer in 2018. Earlier that year, he was arrested in response to allegations he sexually assaulted his nanny. Ravenel pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and battery in 2019. 

Apart from improving K-12 education, Ravanel said he aims to transform South Carolina into a “more competitive environment in which to create jobs, in which to induce investment capital into the state” if elected governor.  

“You take a look at the neighboring states, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee. Take a look at it, Texas, these places. I mean, trillions of dollars are entering into these states because they have a competitive tax system. We don't,” he told The Hill.

The filings for a gubernatorial run are not available until next year, but other South Carolina lawmakers have already expressed their interest in the state's top job. 

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is mulling a gubernatorial run herself, her spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. 

“I’ve been in the state Legislature before, I have great relationships in Washington now, and I’ve acquired the leadership necessary to be bold, to make sure that we are moving forward with conservative policies,” Mace, who has already made some state-level trips, said in an interview last month. “I have made a difference in the work that I have done up here, and know that I could do even more at the state level.” 

Ravenel said he will not worry about his competition but strictly focus on how to “improve the system.” 

“I'm just going to push my message, focus on what I can do, and I'm not going to attack any of my opponents, although the tweet sort of implied that I was not very respectful of them. But when I run, it's going to be a focus on how I want to improve the system,” he told The Hill. 

“And if I can make this political comeback with substantial numbers, it will give me a mandate to impose the changes I want in our education system and in our tax system as well,” he said.