(CNN) - South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley will pick up a major endorsement Tuesday from one of her former rivals in the Republican primary – Attorney General Henry McMaster.
McMaster campaign manager Trey Walker told CNN that the attorney general plans to formally back Haley’s bid in a press conference Tuesday morning at his campaign headquarters in Columbia.
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Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) - Former presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rudy Giuliani have recorded robocalls for South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Henry McMaster in a last minute get-out-the-vote effort ahead of Tuesday's four-way Republican primary.
McCain's call began hitting households over the weekend, while Giuliani's is planned to go out Monday, according to McMaster's campaign.
McCain, who won the Palmetto State's pivotal presidential primary in 2008, tells voters that he and his wife Cindy "have a special place in our hearts for the wonderful people of South Carolina." McMaster, the state's Attorney General, was one of McCain's top surrogates in the 2008 primary campaign.
Listen to the call:
The Arizona Senator praises McMaster for leading a group of Attorneys General earlier this year in filing a lawsuit against President Obama's health care plan.
"Thanks to Henry's leadership, we have a real shot at blocking socialized medicine in American," McCain says in the automated call. "Henry is a battled tested champion for the conservative cause. He has the fighting heat of a reformer, plus a record of getting things done."
(CNN) - Henry McMaster, the South Carolina Attorney General now running for governor, has largely stayed above the fray as the Republican primary race has descended into a circus-like den of sex allegations, blog innuendo and racial slurs.
McMaster sought to capture the moral high ground Friday with a message to his GOP rivals: Knock it off.
"The behavior of my opponents, their campaigns and their supporters over the last few weeks has not served our state well. In fact, it's been embarrassing," McMaster said in a statement. "South Carolina is a wonderful state, blessed with talented people, abundant resources and unlimited potential. Success is ours for the taking. And it's time we start acting like it."
(CNN) - After a poll Thursday showed Tea Party favorite Nikki Haley surging to the front of the pack in the race for the South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial nomination, her opponents acknowledged - but sought to downplay - her fresh momentum.
Haley, a state representative with little money and a meager statewide profile, entered the race last year as a dark horse candidate after supporters of Gov. Mark Sanford urged her to run under the reform mantle. Her small government views won over national conservative activists, but she struggled to make headway in her own four-way GOP primary.
That changed in recent weeks after Haley netted a surprise endorsement from Sarah Palin, who traveled to Columbia to appear with Haley at a rally. ReformSC, an advocacy group funded by allies of Sanford, ran TV ads backing her candidacy. Haley's campaign also went on the air with a tough ad attacking her rivals - Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, Attorney General Henry McMaster and Rep. Gresham Barrett.
A candidate must capture 50 percent of the vote in the June 8 primary, an unlikely prospect that means the race will probably result in a runoff between the top two vote-getters.
Haley campaign manager Tim Pearson said in an e-mail to supporters Thursday that "our campaign is in the strongest position we've ever been" - a claim Haley's rivals aren't disputing.
McMaster's campaign admitted Thursday that their once little-known opponent is riding high.
(CNN) – South Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Republican Henry McMaster is out with a new television ad Tuesday that invokes Ronald Reagan and highlights McMaster's fight against Democrats' health care legislation.
The 30-second spot is the second McMaster ad to feature the role the South Carolina Attorney General played in state lawsuits over the health care bill, claiming that the bill infringes on states' rights.
Related: McMaster uses health care suit in campaign ad
"When Ronald Reagan named me his first U.S. Attorney, I thanked him for the honor," McMaster says in the ad. "And I went to work to defend freedom and to protect the Constitution. When President Obama and the Washington radicals pushed their unconstitutional takeover of health care, I pushed back. I led the fight to overturn the backroom deals – to defend freedom and to protect the sovereignty of South Carolina. Because that's my job."
McMaster hopes to win his party's nomination in a June 8 primary.
The spot will run on broadcast and cable in all of South Carolina's media markets, according to McMaster's campaign.
(CNN) - South Carolina's Attorney General has decided that Gov. Mark Sanford will not face criminal charges following an investigation into his travel and campaign expenses.
"After conducting a thorough investigation, the evidence does not support beyond a reasonable doubt that the governor knowingly, willfully, and intentionally set out to break state law, which is the criminal prosecutorial standard that must be reached," Attorney General Henry McMaster said Monday at a press conference in Columbia.
For the last five months, McMaster had been reviewing the results of a state ethics investigation into Sanford's use of state planes and campaign funds - a probe that started after media organizations began examining the governor's financial practices following his disclosure of an extramarital affair last June.
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(CNN) - On the same day a federal judge examined his lawsuit challenging President Obama's health care law, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster launched a campaign ad touting his opposition to the bill.
McMaster is one of several state Attorneys General who filed the high-profile lawsuit in a Florida court shortly after the president signed the bill, claiming that the new legislation infriges on legal and budget matters traditionally left to the states.
But because a handful of the plaintiffs are also seeking higher office, including McMaster and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Democrats have accused the lawsuit of being politically motivated.
(CNN) - Should the Democrats' health care reform bill make it to President Obama's desk, at least two Republican state attorneys general are prepared to file a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster told CNN he and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum are ready to take issue with a controversial provision known as "the cornhusker kickback" that exempted the state of Nebraska from paying for Medicare costs and with another provision that mandates all Americans buy health insurance.
The provision giving special treatment to Nebraska was not included in the House bill unveiled Thursday but the legislation must be returned to the Senate before final passage. Democratic leaders have vowed that provision is dead but thirteen other attorney generals in addition to McMaster and McCollum have already signed on to the plan to file a lawsuit if the so-called "cornhusker kickback" is included in any final version of the bill signed by Obama.
But even if that controversial provision is removed, McMaster and McCollum say the bill's individual mandate provision is an unconstitutional encroachment on state authority as protected by the 10th Amendment - the part of the Constitution that provides all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government continue to remain with the states.
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