- BIG STORY: Agritourism takes root in S.C. as farmers open doors
- MORE NEWS: Republican primary race for S.C. governor heating up
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Budget cuts
- BRACK: GOP gubernatorial race might get really testy
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Baseball stadium
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
Agritourism takes root as S.C. farmers open doors
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | In simple dollar terms, Italy’s most valuable contribution to South Carolina’s tourism industry is in the Lowcountry, where Charleston’s famed Spoleto Festival USA annually delivers about 65,000 arts-loving visitors and more than $40 million in economic activity. The Charleston festival grew from a similar event that started years earlier in Spoleto, Italy.
But experts say there’s a humbler Italian-born tourism tradition that’s quietly exploding in communities from the Lowcountry to the Upstate — agritourismo, or farm tourism. And while it got a much later start here than its Italian counterpart, which took off in the 1980s, officials say S.C. agritourism is already generating about $15 million a year to support farmers and rural communities across the Palmetto State.
“Agritourism is really taking the ag world by storm,” Clemson University’s Will Culler told Statehouse Report in an interview this week. “The tradition and culture around farming in South Carolina interests so many people — they want to see it and experience it for themselves.”
The breadth and diversity of those experiences were on display just last month, Culler noted, when Clemson’s annual Ag + Art Tour welcomed 30,000 visitors to farms in 22 S.C. counties, with attractions ranging from corn mazes to hiking trails to petting zoos and more.
“This year, we had 186 farms participating,” Culler said, noting that it represented about a third of the total agritourism farms in the state. “According to the Agriculture Department website, there are over 600 farms doing some form of agritourism in South Carolina, which is truly amazing.”
A growing industry with strong state support
With Palmetto State agritourism revenues rising more than 300% since 2012, industry observers credit state officials for taking a number of early steps to foster and promote the once-rare practice.
On the legislative side, they point to two laws that cleared the way for farmers to begin opening their land up to visitors. First, in 2007, legislators updated the state’s tax assessment law to ensure farmers weren’t hit with higher local property tax rates if they began offering agritourism attractions. And second, in 2010, they passed a bill offering farmers liability protection as long as they posted signs warning visitors of the risks inherent in most farm-related activities.
S.C. Sen. Russell Ott, an Orangeburg Democrat who manages his family’s farm in rural Orangeburg County, told Statehouse Report he thinks the legislature has generally done “a good job” in supporting agritourism initiatives.
“Here in South Carolina, we’ve tried to give farmers who want to try agritourism a break,” he said in a July 14 interview. “Because a lot of times, that’s the difference between them staying in business and going out of business.”
And while he doesn’t practice agritourism himself, he says it can be an important driver of rural economic development.
“It’s got spinoff benefits for the whole community,” he said. “When we can attract people to come in and spend their money, it helps everybody.”
In addition to the state’s legislative efforts, the S.C. Department of Agriculture has maintained an active agritourism program since 2014, department spokesperson Eva Moore said this week.
Specifically, Moore pointed to initiatives like the department’s Agritourism Passport Program, which allows visitors to redeem stamps from more than 100 participating farms for official state merchandise, including hats and T-shirts. Other initiatives include a website promoting every farm that currently offers agritourism products and services, and ongoing state support for the S.C. Agritourism Association.
But perhaps even more important, Moore said, is the “backend support” the department offers to farmers as they face the very real challenges of developing a workable agritourism plan.
“What do you need to know to invite people to your farm?” Moore said, outlining the kinds of questions the department helps farmers answer. “What are the legal considerations? What are the marketing considerations? How do you keep people safe? That’s the kind of support we offer.”
Down on the farm
Lee Newton of Newton Blueberry Farm said his family has been offering “you pick ‘em or we pick ‘em” agritourism services in Hollywood since 1968, long before the term was coined.
“We have a big following of you-pickers that come get their blueberries every year,” Newton said. “And we host a festival once a year when we have a good crop.”
To give a sense of scale, he noted about 1,200 people attended this year’s festival in late June.
“We had 25 sets of vendors selling all sorts of various wares,” Newton said. “Everybody came out and visited, picked berries and went to the food trucks and so forth, so it was a great day.”
Another S.C. grower, Casey Price of Jeremiah Farm and Goat Dairy on Johns Island, said she and her husband Tim got into the agritourism business almost by accident, when friends and neighbors insisted on paying them for farm tours they conducted anytime people asked.
“And here we are 20 years later, still doing it,” Price said, noting that the farm’s agritourism activities have expanded over the years to include goat milk products, educational seminars, farm to table meals and more.
But Price made it clear that the ancillary farm income, while helpful, wasn’t the driving force behind the growth of her family’s agritourism activities.
“It’s our heart to connect people with the rural lifestyle,” she said. “All the things we just grew up knowing – how to grow food, how to make soap, how to make cheese. Because if we don’t share it, it’s lost.”
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Republican primary race for governor heats up
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | The race to replace term-limited Gov. Henry McMaster heated up on the Republican side this week with a splashy campaign announcement, a lawsuit alleging serious misconduct and a high-profile trip to the White House.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, an Upstate businesswoman and political unknown when McMaster selected her as his running mate in 2018, launched her 2026 GOP primary bid at a July 14 event in Greenville, stressing her ties with President Donald Trump.
“South Carolina needs a governor who has his trust, a governor who doesn’t need to build a relationship, a governor who can pick up the phone and get things done for South Carolina, because that relationship already exists,” Evette told supporters.
Hours later, in a social media post, Evette went further, telling Republicans that she was the only candidate they could rely on to never “betray” the president.
“You can choose someone who’s been with Trump from the beginning, when it wasn’t the easy thing to do,” Evette wrote on X. “Or you can choose from a number of career politicians who only back President Trump when it’s in their political interest to do so, and will betray him the minute it isn’t popular to be by his side.”
Meanwhile, Spartanburg Republican Sen. Josh Kimbrell, who announced his gubernatorial campaign in June, claimed he was a victim of “lawfare” this week after a business partner filed a lawsuit alleging that the senator misappropriated $2 million from their jointly-owned company, Exodus Aircraft, to support his political ambitions.
“What we’re dealing with here is nothing short of a politically motivated attack,” Kimbrell said in a July 17 social media video addressing the charges. “I have full faith that the truth will prevail, and I will be fully vindicated once again.”
Also making news among the announced candidates for governor was S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, who touted a call-out he received from the president during a July 16 White House bill signing ceremony.
“Proud to be with @POTUS as he signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law today,” Wilson said in remarks posted to X, alongside video of the president thanking him for his support of the bill. “I’ll never stop fighting to get fentanyl off our streets, hold dealers accountable, and protect South Carolina families.”
With the gubernatorial primary almost a year away, several additional candidates are expected to crowd into the Republican primary field before the summer is out, including U.S. First District Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Fifth District Rep. Ralph Norman and Summerville Sen. Sean Bennett.
On the Democratic side, only Richland County Rep. Jermaine Johnson has so far expressed an interest in the race, announcing the formation of his 2026 exploratory committee in May.
In other recent news
Hurricane cuts could create forecasting havoc in S.C. With the Trump administration’s huge ongoing and planned cuts to federal staff and funding of the nation’s storm forecasting abilities, the storms of the future may pose more of a risk than ever before. And it’s not because of climate change. It’s because of changes that will scale back forecasting.
2028: Kentucky governor tours S.C. as he considers presidential bid. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear made several high-profile stops in Upstate S.C. Wednesday in advance of a possible run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. “There’s so much discourse right now about the messaging and how Democrats get out of the wilderness,” Beshear told the state AFL-CIO. “We do it by showing up. We do it by getting dirt on our boots. We do it by governing well. That’s how we rebuild the confidence of the American people.”
2026: Johnson suspends U.S. Senate campaign two months after launch. Greenville businessman Lee Johnson announced Wednesday that he’s suspending his Democratic primary campaign to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, leaving Lowcountry pediatrician Annie Andrews, Upstate educator Brandon Brown and retired Navy officer Kyle Freeman in the race.
S.C. schools allowed to hire noncertified teachers under new state law. Facing an ongoing teacher shortage, S.C. public schools now have the option of hiring noncertified teachers for the 2025-26 school year. Under the new law, teachers must have at least an undergraduate degree in the subject they will teach, and will have to enroll in an educator certification program if they wish to stay in the classroom.
S.C. seeks waiver to add thousands to state Medicaid program. The state of South Carolina is asking the federal government for a waiver that would allow its Medicaid program to cover working parents making up to 100% of the federal poverty level. Under the plan, newly eligible parents would have to prove they are working at least 80 hours per month to receive the benefit.
McMaster open to S.C. version of Alligator Alcatraz. Gov. Henry McMaster’s office is leaving the door open on a potential partnership between South Carolina and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to build something similar to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” to facilitate deportations of undocumented migrants.
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Budget cuts
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he takes on the impact of federal budget cuts to emergency systems.
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GOP primary might get really testy
By Andy Brack | The Republican race for a gubernatorial candidate in 2026 could easily become a B-team bloodbath.
Already, there are three announced candidates. And with more likely to jump into the wide-open race in the weeks ahead — incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster is term-limited — it easily could spin out of control, with ever shriller opponents trying to distinguish themselves as the 2026 primary approaches. Or not – if you think the current version of the GOP can keep itself out of the gutter and focused on policy differences. (Fat chance.)
The problem Republican voters will face in 2026 is that most of the candidates are not true leaders in the style of former Gov. Carroll Campbell or even McMaster. They’re followers, at best – B-team players who have hung on for years trying to reach the next rung of power.
Just look at current Attorney General Alan Wilson, who many consider the front-runner. He’ll be a law-and-order candidate, for sure, but he’s not done that much to distinguish himself in big-picture policy or intellectual rigor over the years. About all he’s known for on a national level is lemming-like chiming in on every partisan lawsuit filed against Democratic presidential administrations.
Incumbent Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, a political unknown elected on McMaster’s ticket in 2018, is still pretty much an unknown after years in Columbia.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, elected as a newcomer in 2020 to a Spartanburg seat in the state Senate, looked like the fresh, young voice when he announced a few weeks ago – a face that could inject something new in a staid race. But his campaign seems to be falling apart before our eyes after accusations of financial shenanigans earlier this month by a business partner in an aviation leasing company.
Two other names you’ve likely heard as possible gubernatorial candidates are U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace of the Charleston area and Ralph Norman of the Rock Hill area. Both are making moves to expand their outreach across the state with Mace taking several stunt-laden scouting trips to see voters and Norman using lots of spammy texts to try to engage with potential voters outside his district.
Mace might want to try to become the state’s big political deal after McMaster to feed her ego and because she’s wearing out her welcome in Washington – where it’s harder to get on national television because some of her antics have crossed the line. And Norman, 72, may be looking to wind up a career as governor because he’s become something of a conservative pariah in Washington – opposing Trump on items the president wants, only to pull back and cave at the end.
The one name you might not have heard of as a possibility is state Sen. Sean Bennett, a solid old-school Summerville Republican who we hear is getting pressure from the business community to jump into the race. A financial planner who is seen as having a long-term strategic view of the state, he’s been in the state Senate since 2013.
Conventional wisdom holds that the more people who are in a primary race, the more likely that race could devolve into a personality contest with high-falutin’ charges and countercharges as people try to make themselves more memorable.
Maybe the smart thing, however, in 2026 is for candidates to distinguish themselves through serious campaigns about public policy and their vision for South Carolina instead of social media attention grabs.
- Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. His weekly column on politics has appeared in South Carolina media for more than 20 years. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Another stadium
After last week’s mystery about a football stadium, we thought it would be good to showcase a baseball stadium today. Where is it? If you have a good mystery stumper to share with fellow readers, send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s Mystery Photo, “Football stadium,” showed the gridiron in Abbeville County. Jacie Godfrey of Florence tells us, “it has notable alumni football players. Lemont Evans who later played for the Washington Redskins, Keenan Gilchrist who played for Toronto Argonauts, Kenneth Motion, co-anchor for World News Now and Charlie Timmons, former player for Brooklyn Dodgers.”
Others who correctly identified it were Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Jay Altman of Columbia; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
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Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
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- Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole
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