List of South Carolina governors from first to last

South Carolina joined the Union on May 23, 1788, when it became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution. It was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860, leading to the Civil War. The state is also home to Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

Here is a list of former governors of South Carolina down to the present governor.

Name	Time in Office	Party
Rawlins Lowndes	1778 – 1779
John Rutledge	1779 – 1782, 1776 – 1778
John Mathews	1782 – 1783
Benjamin Guerard	1783 – 1785
William Moultrie	1785 – 1794	Federalist
Thomas Pinckney	1787 – 1789	Federalist
Arnoldus Vandershorst	1794 – 1796	Federalist
Edward Rutledge	1798 – 1800	Federalist
James Burchill Richardson	1802 – 1804	Democratic-Republican
Paul Hamilton	1804 – 1806	Democratic-Republican
Charles Pinckney	1806 – 1808, 1796 – 1798, 1789 – 1792	Democratic-Republican
John Drayton	1808 – 1810, 1800 – 1802	Democratic-Republican
Henry Middleton	1810 – 1812	Democratic-Republican
Joseph Alston	1812 – 1814	Democratic-Republican
David Rogerson Williams	1814 – 1816	Democratic-Republican
Andrew Pickens	1816 – 1818	Democratic-Republican
Geddes John	1818 – 1820	Democratic-Republican
Thomas Bennett	1820 – 1822	Democratic-Republican
John Lyde Wilson	1822 – 1824	Democratic-Republican
Richard Irvine Manning	1824 – 1826	Democratic-Republican
John Taylor	1826 – 1828	Democratic-Republican
Stephen Decatur Miller	1828 – 1830	Democratic
James Jr. Hamilton	1830 – 1832	Democratic
Robert Young Hayne	1833 – 1834	Democratic
George McDuffie	1834 – 1836	Democratic
Pierce Mason Butler	1836 – 1838	Democratic
Patrick Noble	1838 – 1840	Democratic
Barnabas Kelet Henagan	1840 – 1840	Democratic
John Peter Richardson II	1840 – 1842	Democratic
James Henry Hammond	1842 – 1844	Democratic
William Aiken	1844 – 1846	Democratic
David Johnson	1846 – 1848	Democratic
Whitemarsh Benjamin Seabrook	1848 – 1850	Democratic
John Hugh Means	1850 – 1852	Democratic
John Laurence Manning	1852 – 1854	Democratic
James Hopkins Adams	1854 – 1856	Democratic
Robert Francis Withers Allston	1856 – 1858	Democratic
William Henry Gist	1858 – 1860	Democratic
Francis Wilkinson Pickens	1860 – 1862
Milledge Luke Bonham	1862 – 1864	Democratic
Andrew Gordon MacGrath	1864 – 1865	Democratic
Benjamin Franklin Perry	1865 – 1865	Democratic
James Lawrence Orr	1865 – 1868	Conservative
Edward R. S. Canby	1868 – 1868
Robert Kingston Scott	1868 – 1872	Republican
Franklin J. Moses	1872 – 1874	Republican
Daniel Henry Chamberlain	1874 – 1876	Republican
Wade Hampton III	1876 – 1879	Democratic
William Dunlap Simpson	1879 – 1880	Democratic
Thomas Bothwell Jeter	1880 – 1880	Democratic
Johnson Hagood	1880 – 1882	Democratic
Hugh Smith Thompson	1882 – 1886	Democratic
John Calhoun Sheppard	1886 – 1886	Democratic
John Peter Richardson	1886 – 1890	Democratic
Benjamin Ryan Tillman	1890 – 1894	Democratic
John Gary Evans	1894 – 1897	Democratic
William Haselden Ellerbe	1897 – 1899	Democratic
Miles Benjamin McSweeney	1899 – 1903	Democratic
Duncan Clinch Heyward	1903 – 1907	Democratic
Martin Frederick Ansel	1907 – 1911	Democratic
Coleman Livingston Blease	1911 – 1915	Democratic
Charles A. Smith	1915 – 1915	Democratic
Richard Irvine Manning III	1915 – 1919	Democratic
Robert Archer Cooper	1919 – 1922	Democratic
Wilson Godfrey Harvey	1922 – 1923	Democratic
Thomas Gordon McLeod	1923 – 1927	Democratic
John Gardiner Richards	1927 – 1931	Democratic
Ibra Charles Blackwood	1931 – 1935	Democratic
Burnet Rhett Maybank	1939 – 1941	Democratic
Joseph Emile Harley	1941 – 1942	Democratic
Richard Manning Jeffries	1942 – 1943	Democratic
Olin De Witt Talmadge Johnston	1943 – 1945, 1935 – 1939	Democratic
Ransome Judson Williams	1945 – 1947	Democratic
James Strom Thurmond	1947 – 1951	Democratic
James Francis Byrnes	1951 – 1955	Democratic
George Bell Timmerman	1955 – 1959	Democratic
Ernest Frederick Hollings	1959 – 1963	Democratic
Donald Stuart Russell	1963 – 1965	Democratic
Robert Evander McNair	1965 – 1971	Democratic
John Carl West	1971 – 1975	Democratic
James Burrows Edwards	1975 – 1979	Republican
Richard Wilson Riley	1979 – 1987	Democratic
Carroll A. Campbell	1987 – 1995	Republican
David M. Beasley	1995 – 1999	Republican
Jim Hodges	1999 – 2003	Democratic
Mark Sanford	2003 – 2011	Republican
Nikki R. Haley	2011 – 2017	Republican
Henry McMaster	2017 –	Republican