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Our verdict

LiberalMind endorses David Stumbo

Election Day is November 3. Alan Wilson, attorney general since 2011, left the seat to run for Governor, and no Democrat has held this office since Thomas Medlock left in 1995. David Stumbo has prosecuted for a living his entire career — he is in his fourth term as Solicitor for the Eighth Judicial Circuit and once led the Attorney General's Internet Crimes Against Children task force. Richard Hricik, a Charleston-area attorney, is running a documented $0 campaign on purpose: accepting no contributions at all is his signature pledge. Sabato's Crystal Ball rates the race Safe R; the one poll, from a Republican-leaning pollster, has Stumbo up 15. LiberalMind endorses David Stumbo. Read the research, and see why.

How South Carolina got here

Stumbo won the June 23, 2026 Republican runoff over State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, 173,127 votes (55.8%) to 137,427 (44.2%), after a June 9 primary in which Goldfinch led (175,921), followed by Stumbo (156,876) and First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe (107,086) (2026 South Carolina Attorney General election compilation; Greenville News primary results). Hricik won the Democratic primary unopposed (same sources).

The money: Hricik's is $0 by documented design — his no-money pledge, below. No general-election fundraising total for Stumbo was located in this research, and we print no money comparison without the SC Ethics Commission filings.

Competitiveness: Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe R (as of Aug. 21, 2025) (AG election compilation). Trafalgar Group poll (Oct. 16–18, 2026; 1,095 likely voters; ±2.9): Stumbo 52%, Hricik 37%, 11% undecided (same compilation) — Trafalgar is a Republican-leaning pollster, and the number is printed with that label.

On enforcement, our framing is standing: LiberalMind backs ICE the agency and its job, always; enforcement operating in a state is the law being enforced, never a candidate's stain. Neither candidate's file in this research turns on an enforcement position, and we invent none.

David Stumbo (Republican) — a career prosecutor, in his fourth elected term

Background and service: 50; Solicitor for the Eighth Judicial Circuit (Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens, Newberry) since his election in November 2012, now in his fourth term; president of the SC Solicitors' Association 2017–2020; earlier he prosecuted in the 11th Circuit and in the Attorney General's Office, where he led the Internet Crimes Against Children task force (campaign biography as compiled at The Ballot Brief; Greenville News candidate profile). His campaign priorities, per his site: violent crime, law-enforcement support, life, religious liberty, parental rights, and constitutional limits (The Ballot Brief).

Pros: Fourteen years as an elected circuit solicitor — the closest South Carolina office to the one he seeks — plus service inside the Attorney General's Office itself, leading its ICAC task force. He survived a three-way primary and a runoff against a sitting state senator. His stated program is the office's core work: violent crime and support for law enforcement.

Cons: His record is entirely prosecutorial; the office's civil and consumer-protection side is untested in his file. No general-election fundraising total was located, so his campaign's finances cannot be priced here.

The flaw, plainly: No flaw proven in service was located.

Richard Hricik (Democratic) — the $0 campaign, by pledge

Background and service: 59; a Charleston-area (Lowcountry) attorney with 25-plus years of practice (sources vary between "more than 25 years" in his launch coverage and "more than 30 years" in WIS/Greenville reporting — the variance is printed as a conflict, and nothing in this file turns on it); Democratic nominee for State Senate District 43 in 2020 (AG election compilation; Greenville News). His signature pledge is a "no-money" campaign — he accepts no contributions, from special interests or himself, as a "firewall against corruption and influence" (Greenville News). His platform: the rule of law applied equally, and more attention to the AG's civil and consumer-protection duties alongside criminal cases (The Ballot Brief, summarizing his Live 5 interview).

The Manchin test: Hricik's documented position is on campaign money, not a proven in-service break with his party on our values — he has never held office, so there is no in-service record to inspect, and no break was located.

Pros: A quarter-century of legal practice; a no-money pledge that is a consistent, costly position, practiced at $0 rather than performed; a platform that names the office's neglected civil side.

Cons: He has never held office or run a prosecutor's office; his $0 is by pledge, but a pledge is not a program for the criminal side of the job, which is most of it. He trails by 15 in the only poll, from a pollster leaning toward his opponent.

The flaw, plainly: No conduct flaw was located. The priced item is an unproven record for a prosecutorial office — a watch posture, not a demerit — plus the absence of any Manchin-test break.

OUR CALL

LiberalMind endorses David Stumbo.

This is the doctrine's straightforward case. Stumbo is proven in service in the exact profession: four elected terms as a circuit solicitor, the solicitors' association presidency, and a leadership post inside the Attorney General's Office itself — with no flaw proven in service located. Hricik is a sincere attorney whose $0 pledge we credit as consistency, and who offers voters no prosecutorial record, no office held, and no Manchin-test break. An attorney general is the state's chief prosecutor; endorse the proven prosecutor, his thin civil-side file printed above.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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