Rock Hill state senator launches bid for SC’s 5th Congressional District

State Sen. Wes Climer officially launched his campaign for South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, making him the first to declare a run for the seat that stretches from the state’s Charlotte suburbs south into Sumter County.

The Rock Hill Republican announced during a York County GOP event Thursday night that he would seek the seat held by U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. Norman has decided to run for governor rather than seek re-election during the 2026 midterm that will determine control of Congress.

If elected, Climer said he will “focus on the best interests of the middle class” and be a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s America First Agenda, which calls for immigration controls, increased fossil fuel production, decreased regulation, spending cuts and protective tariffs aimed at encouraging U.S.-based manufacturing.

“The old playbook obviously doesn’t work,” Climer said. “The cost of everything is too high. The basic functions of government are incompetent. U.S. trade policy is divorced from the interest of the middle class. It’s about fixing those broken systems so middle class families can thrive.”

Climer paints himself as a fiscal hawk who wants to reduce the federal deficit and pay down debt.

“Washington spends far too much money,” he said. “The U.S. faces a real debt crisis with real implications for middle class families.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget office estimated that the recent tax and spending bill pushed by Trump and passed by the Republican-controlled Congress will add $3.394 trillion to deficits during the next decade.

In the federal government, Congress controls the purse strings, determining spending and taxation. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank controls interest rates and money supply.

“The most impactful thing Washington can do to bring down prices is to reduce the cost of Washington on the economy,” Climer said.

The three-term state senator was first elected to the Statehouse in 2016 after unseating long-time incumbent Sen. Wes Hayes by 4 percentage points in the GOP primary.

Climer campaigned on promises to improve the state’s roads and strengthen ethics laws governing elected officials. He came into office in the same wave that swept Trump, then a political outsider, into his first term in the White House.

In the Statehouse, Climer has been a critic of hundreds of millions of state dollars funneled to legislators’ pet projects via earmarks and the secrecy that previously surrounded the process.

A free market proponent, he also was the lead sponsor of legislation that gradually did away with the regulatory process, known as certificate of need, that was designed to control competition within the healthcare market in an effort to protect rural hospitals.

And he teamed with former state Senate Democrat Dick Harpootlian on legislation to tweak how the state elects judges, imposing term limits on members of the panel that screens them.

The two joined forces again this summer, most recently asking the state’s highest court to halt a $2,500-monthly raise that legislators voted for themselves to cover expenses incurred while working in their home districts.

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This also wouldn’t be Climer’s first time in Washington, D.C. if he’s elected. He previously worked from 2006 to 2011 as a congressional aide in the Washington offices of former U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, both North Carolina Republicans, as well as Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, when he was a congressman.

In 2011, Climer began working as a financial consultant. And in 2013, he became chairman of the York County GOP until his successful run for the Statehouse.

Other congressional races

In other congressional races, Paul Dans, an author of Project 2025, announced he was jumping into the already crowded primary race against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who Dans called a “perpetual warmonger.”

“Lindsey Graham has betrayed South Carolina conservatives for the last time,” Dans said in a statement. “While he schemes with the D.C. swamp to send billions overseas and push for endless wars, I’ve been at work to enable President Trump to implement the America First agenda that’s reshaping America into the country we have always dreamed of.”

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, went to work for the Heritage Foundation after former President Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump in 2020. There he helped author the 1,000-page policy paper once billed as a blueprint for the next Republican White House.

Dans left the Heritage Foundation in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025, which Trump distanced himself from on the campaign trail.

Dans now lives in Charleston with his wife and four children.

Meanwhile, Graham locked in Trump’s endorsement early.

“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” Chris LaCivita, who is helping run Graham’s campaign, responded in a statement.

Others in the running include former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Greenville businessman Mark Lynch.

This brings the total field for the Senate race to eight challengers from the two major parties — three Republicans and five Democrats — according to federal elections filings.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comment from the Graham campaign.