List of South Carolina Governors
Explore the list of South Carolina governors, their terms, party affiliations, and gubernatorial election history from the state’s founding to the present.
John Rutledge
Years of Term: 1776 - 1778
Political Party: No party
Benjamin Guerard
Years of Term: 1783 - 1785
Political Party: No party
Arnoldus Vandershorst
Years of Term: 1794 - 1796
Political Party: Federalist
James Burchill Richardson
Years of Term: 1802 - 1804
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Henry Middleton
Years of Term: 1810 - 1812
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Geddes John
Years of Term: 1818 - 1820
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
John Taylor
Years of Term: 1826 - 1828
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
George McDuffie
Years of Term: 1834 - 1836
Political Party: Democratic
John Peter Richardson II
Years of Term: 1840 - 1842
Political Party: Democratic
Whitemarsh Benjamin Seabrook
Years of Term: 1848 - 1850
Political Party: Democratic
Robert Francis Withers Allston
Years of Term: 1856 - 1858
Political Party: Democratic
Andrew Gordon MacGrath
Years of Term: 1864 - 1865
Political Party: Democratic
Franklin J. Moses Jr.
Years of Term: 1872 - 1874
Political Party: Republican
Thomas Bothwell Jeter
Years of Term: 1880 - 1880
Political Party: Democratic
John Peter Richardson III
Years of Term: 1886 - 1890
Political Party: Democratic
Miles Benjamin McSweeney
Years of Term: 1899 - 1903
Political Party: Democratic
Charles A. Smith
Years of Term: 1915 - 1915
Political Party: Democratic
Thomas Gordon McLeod
Years of Term: 1923 - 1927
Political Party: Democratic
Burnet Maybank
Years of Term: 1939 - 1941
Political Party: Democratic
Ransome Judson Williams
Years of Term: 1945 - 1947
Political Party: Democratic
Ernest Hollings
Years of Term: 1959 - 1963
Political Party: Democratic
James Edwards
Years of Term: 1975 - 1979
Political Party: Republican
Jim Hodges
Years of Term: 1999 - 2003
Political Party: Democratic
Rawlins Lowndes
Years of Term: 1778 - 1779
Political Party: No party
William Moultrie
Years of Term: 1785 - 1794
Political Party: Federalist
Charles Pinckney
Years of Term: 1796 - 1798
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Paul Hamilton
Years of Term: 1804 - 1806
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Joseph Alston
Years of Term: 1812 - 1814
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Thomas Bennett Jr.
Years of Term: 1820 - 1822
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Stephen Decatur Miller
Years of Term: 1828 - 1830
Political Party: Democratic
Pierce Mason Butler
Years of Term: 1836 - 1838
Political Party: Democratic
James Henry Hammond
Years of Term: 1842 - 1844
Political Party: Democratic
John Hugh Means
Years of Term: 1850 - 1852
Political Party: Democratic
William Henry Gist
Years of Term: 1858 - 1860
Political Party: Democratic
Benjamin Franklin Perry
Years of Term: 1865 - 1865
Political Party: Democratic
Daniel Henry Chamberlain
Years of Term: 1874 - 1876
Political Party: Republican
Johnson Hagood
Years of Term: 1880 - 1882
Political Party: Democratic
Ben Tillman
Years of Term: 1890 - 1894
Political Party: Democratic
Duncan Clinch Heyward
Years of Term: 1903 - 1907
Political Party: Democratic
Richard Irvine Manning III
Years of Term: 1915 - 1919
Political Party: Democratic
John Gardiner Richards
Years of Term: 1927 - 1931
Political Party: Democratic
Joseph Emile Harley
Years of Term: 1941 - 1942
Political Party: Democratic
Strom Thurmond
Years of Term: 1947 - 1951
Political Party: Democratic
Donald Stuart Russell
Years of Term: 1963 - 1965
Political Party: Democratic
Richard Riley
Years of Term: 1979 - 1987
Political Party: Democratic
Mark Sanford
Years of Term: 2003 - 2011
Political Party: Republican
John Rutledge
Years of Term: 1779 - 1782
Political Party: No party
Thomas Pinckney
Years of Term: 1787 - 1789
Political Party: Federalist
Edward Rutledge
Years of Term: 1798 - 1800
Political Party: Federalist
Charles Pinckney
Years of Term: 1806 - 1808
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
David Rogerson Williams
Years of Term: 1814 - 1816
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
John Lyde Wilson
Years of Term: 1822 - 1824
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
James Hamilton Jr.
Years of Term: 1830 - 1832
Political Party: Democratic
Patrick Noble
Years of Term: 1838 - 1840
Political Party: Democratic
William Aiken Jr.
Years of Term: 1844 - 1846
Political Party: Democratic
John Laurence Manning
Years of Term: 1852 - 1854
Political Party: Democratic
Francis Wilkinson Pickens
Years of Term: 1860 - 1862
Political Party: No party
James Lawrence Orr
Years of Term: 1865 - 1868
Political Party: Conservative
Wade Hampton III
Years of Term: 1876 - 1879
Political Party: Democratic
Hugh Smith Thompson
Years of Term: 1882 - 1886
Political Party: Democratic
John Gary Evans
Years of Term: 1894 - 1897
Political Party: Democratic
Martin Frederick Ansel
Years of Term: 1907 - 1911
Political Party: Democratic
Robert Archer Cooper
Years of Term: 1919 - 1922
Political Party: Democratic
Ibra Charles Blackwood
Years of Term: 1931 - 1935
Political Party: Democratic
Richard Manning Jeffries
Years of Term: 1942 - 1943
Political Party: Democratic
James Francis Byrnes
Years of Term: 1951 - 1955
Political Party: Democratic
Robert McNair
Years of Term: 1965 - 1971
Political Party: Democratic
Carroll Campbell
Years of Term: 1987 - 1995
Political Party: Republican
Nikki R. Haley
Years of Term: 2011 - 2017
Political Party: Republican
John Mathews
Years of Term: 1782 - 1783
Political Party: No party
Charles Pinckney
Years of Term: 1789 - 1792
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
John Drayton
Years of Term: 1800 - 1802
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
John Drayton
Years of Term: 1808 - 1810
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Andrew Pickens
Years of Term: 1816 - 1818
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Richard Irvine Manning I
Years of Term: 1824 - 1826
Political Party: Democratic-Republican
Robert Young Hayne
Years of Term: 1833 - 1834
Political Party: Democratic
Barnabas Kelet Henagan
Years of Term: 1840 - 1840
Political Party: Democratic
David Johnson
Years of Term: 1846 - 1848
Political Party: Democratic
James Hopkins Adams
Years of Term: 1854 - 1856
Political Party: Democratic
Milledge Luke Bonham
Years of Term: 1862 - 1864
Political Party: Democratic
Robert Kingston Scott
Years of Term: 1868 - 1872
Political Party: Republican
William Dunlap Simpson
Years of Term: 1879 - 1880
Political Party: Democratic
John Calhoun Sheppard
Years of Term: 1886 - 1886
Political Party: Democratic
William Haselden Ellerbe
Years of Term: 1897 - 1899
Political Party: Democratic
Coleman Livingston Blease
Years of Term: 1911 - 1915
Political Party: Democratic
Wilson Godfrey Harvey
Years of Term: 1922 - 1923
Political Party: Democratic
Olin Johnston
Years of Term: 1935 - 1939
Political Party: Democratic
Olin Johnston
Years of Term: 1943 - 1945
Political Party: Democratic
George Bell Timmerman
Years of Term: 1955 - 1959
Political Party: Democratic
John Carl West
Years of Term: 1971 - 1975
Political Party: Democratic
David Beasley
Years of Term: 1995 - 1999
Political Party: Republican
Henry McMaster
Years of Term: 2017-Present
Political Party: Republican