Henry McMaster

Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2017 as the 117th governor of South Carolina. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2003 to 2011 as the 50th attorney general of South Carolina and from 2015 to 2017 as the 91st lieutenant governor of South Carolina, under Governor Nikki Haley.

McMaster worked for U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, in private legal practice, and as a federal prosecutor. Appointed United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, he gained attention for investigating South Carolina marijuana smugglers in Operation Jackpot. McMaster was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina in 1986, losing to incumbent Democrat Fritz Hollings.^[1] He was then defeated for lieutenant governor of South Carolina by Democrat Nick Theodore in 1990.

McMaster chaired the South Carolina Republican Party from 1993 to 2002.^[2] He was elected attorney general in 2002 and reelected in 2006. In 2010, McMaster ran for governor but lost to Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. In 2011, Haley appointed him to the South Carolina Ports Authority. McMaster was then elected lieutenant governor of South Carolina under Haley's governorship in 2014. McMaster succeeded to the office of governor in 2017 when Haley resigned to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He won a full four-year term in the 2018 gubernatorial election after narrowly winning a runoff for the Republican nomination and defeating Democratic nominee James E. Smith Jr. in the general election. He won reelection against Democratic nominee Joe Cunningham in 2022.^[3]

On January 29, 2025, McMaster was recognized as South Carolina's longest-serving governor.^[4][5][6] He is also the third-longest serving incumbent governor in the United States. On April 17, 2025, President Trump appointed McMaster to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.^[7]