South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis M. Loftis, Jr. posted a Facebook statement over the weekend endorsing 8th Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo for state attorney general and writing that state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch is “unfit to serve” in the office. The post is signed in Loftis’s name and carries a personal-capacity disclaimer at the bottom. The Republican runoff between Goldfinch and Stumbo is June 23. Loftis endorses Stumbo.
MBSC has reviewed the verbatim text of the post, which is dated to the late hours of Saturday, June 13, into the early hours of Sunday, June 14. The post lives at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cu72weJoP/
— rather than on a press-release channel or the Treasurer’s Office newsroom at treasurer.sc.gov. The post was published on Loftis’s official Treasurer’s Office page.
What Loftis wrote
Loftis writes that “for nearly three years, I watched Stephen Goldfinch run a witch hunt against me and my office.” He alleges that Goldfinch “showed no respect for the truth, pushed false narratives, bullied witnesses and used a fabricated document — a document that was photoshopped, unrelated to the issue at hand, and never retracted.” Loftis claims that “many of the headlines that flashed across the country were incorrect and have since been proven false,” and that Goldfinch “has never corrected the record.
Loftis further characterizes Goldfinch as having “used his senatorial immunity from slander, libel, and defamation laws to say and do as he pleased” while requiring Loftis to testify under oath. Loftis writes that Goldfinch “used that imbalance of power to construct a political document that was passed off as a legal one.”
Loftis goes on to allege that Goldfinch “cost the state millions of dollars, damaged South Carolina’s reputation, AND increased his statewide name recognition while raising campaign money from wealthy special interests.” Loftis writes: “South Carolinians deserve an Attorney General who seeks justice, the truth, follows the facts wherever they lead, and has the courage to correct the record when proven wrong. For nearly three years, Goldfinch did the opposite. That is why I believe he is unfit to serve as South Carolina’s Attorney General.”
The post closes with Loftis writing, “I am pleased to endorse and vote for Mr. David Stumbo as our next Attorney General.” Below his signature, Loftis adds a parenthetical: “No candidate or other person has seen or approved this note. I sign my name to these words as I believe them to be true, and important to the election of a new Attorney General.” The hashtags Loftis appended are `#SouthCarolina` and `#SCGOP`.
These are Loftis’s allegations and characterizations. “The post in question was published on Treasurer Curtis Loftis’s personal Facebook page. No public funds, state equipment, employee work time, or other State Treasurer’s Office resources were used to create, publish, or promote the post,” Curtis Loftis told MyrtleBeachSC News.
The AG race context
Loftis Endorses Stumbo: A Strong Choice for Attorney General
The June 23 runoff was triggered by the June 9 GOP primary, in which Goldfinch finished first with 40.0 percent of the vote and Stumbo finished second with 35.7 percent. First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe was eliminated with 24.3 percent.
The seat is open because outgoing four-term Attorney General Alan Wilson is not seeking re-election to the seat as he campaigns in the June 23 GOP gubernatorial runoff. The winner of the AG runoff will face Lowcountry attorney Richard Hricik, the unopposed Democratic nominee, in the November 3 general election.
Goldfinch represents South Carolina Senate District 34, which spans Georgetown and Horry counties. He is an attorney and entered the Senate in November 2016 after two terms in the state House. He announced his attorney general bid in July 2025.
Goldfinch, with Sen. Larry Grooms, led the 2025 Senate investigation that produced an April 21, 2025 vote to remove Loftis from office over a $1.8 billion accounting controversy in the Treasurer’s Office. That removal effort died in the state House, where Speaker Murrell Smith never placed the resolution on the Ways and Means Committee agenda. The Loftis-Goldfinch dispute that began in those proceedings is established public record.
Two other items from Goldfinch’s record came up during the 2026 race. Federal charges related to a stem-cell company Goldfinch owned were filed in 2013 and dropped in 2017 without an indictment; FITSNews revisited the matter in an April 7, 2026 piece during the primary. And in April 2026, Goldfinch presented Senate Finance Committee findings alleging that state money potentially flowed through First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe’s office to a nonprofit operated by a House Democratic representative. The Senate referred those allegations to the State Ethics Commission and the House Ethics Committee.
Goldfinch’s right of response
MBSC sent a request for comment to the Goldfinch campaign on Sunday, June 14, asking the senator to respond to each specific allegation in Loftis’s post — the “witch hunt” framing, the “fabricated document” allegation, the “bullied witnesses” allegation, the “senatorial immunity” framing, and the “cost the state millions” claim.
David Stumbo
Stumbo is serving his fourth term as solicitor for the 8th Judicial Circuit, which covers Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens and Newberry counties. He was first elected solicitor in November 2012 and has been re-elected three times. Earlier in his career Stumbo worked in the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office from 2002 to 2007 under then-Attorney General Henry McMaster, where he served as the special prosecutor leading the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He entered the AG race in September 2025.
Pascoe, the eliminated third-place finisher in the June 9 primary, endorsed Stumbo on June 12, calling Stumbo “the ONLY real prosecutor and conservative left in the race.” Earlier in the cycle Stumbo had also rolled out endorsements from 20 South Carolina law-enforcement leaders, including 15 sheriffs and five solicitors.
MBSC sent a request for comment to the Stumbo campaign on Sunday, June 14, asking the campaign’s posture on Loftis’s endorsement, whether the campaign coordinated with Loftis or his office on the timing, content, or release of the post, and the campaign’s posture on the specific characterizations Loftis made regarding Goldfinch.
Loftis has served as South Carolina State Treasurer since 2011. The 2024-25 $1.8 billion accounting controversy at the Treasurer’s Office produced the April 2025 Senate vote to remove him; the House never acted on the resolution, and Loftis remained in office. He filed for re-election in March 2026, ran unopposed in the June 9 Republican primary and faces Democrat Vincent Coe in November.
Pascoe — the eliminated AG candidate who endorsed Stumbo on June 12 — has publicly defended Loftis from legislative attack, arguing at the May 28 GOP primary debate that Loftis “had been defamed by certain members of the Legislature.
MBSC sent a request for comment to the Treasurer’s Office on Sunday, June 14, asking whether the Facebook post was published on Loftis’s personal page or on an official Treasurer’s Office page, and whether public time, property or staff resources were involved. [A: “The Treasurer’s Office responded on [date] at [time]. The office said the post was made on [Loftis’s personal Facebook page / the official Treasurer’s Office Facebook page] and that [no public time, property or staff resources were used / the following resources were used]. In a statement provided to MBSC, the office said: ‘[verbatim quote].'” | B: “The Treasurer’s Office did not respond to MBSC’s request for comment sent at 2:00 PM ET on Sunday, June 14. MBSC will update this story if a response is received.”]
The legal framework around public-official endorsements
South Carolina Code Section 8-13-1346, part of the State Ethics Act, prohibits any person from using or authorizing the use of public funds, property or time to influence the outcome of an election. Statewide constitutional officers are subject to the State Ethics Act.
Whether the statute is implicated by a Facebook endorsement depends on the channel and the resources used. Loftis’s personal-capacity disclaimer — “No candidate or other person has seen or approved this note” — appears to be his own effort to address that framework by framing the post as a personal statement rather than an official act. The State Ethics Commission has not, to MBSC’s knowledge, issued public guidance addressing the specific question of a sitting constitutional officer endorsing a candidate through a social-media post.
Transparency disclosures
MBSC sent three requests for comment ahead of publication: to the Treasurer’s Office (channel-identification and public-resource questions), to the Goldfinch campaign (response to specific allegations), and to the Stumbo campaign (posture on the endorsement). The response status of each is noted in the relevant section above.
As of press time, major South Carolina outlets — The Post and Courier, The State, SC Daily Gazette, FITSNews, WMBF, WBTW and WPDE — had not published the Loftis post. MBSC is among the first to report on the statement, working from the verbatim text of the post as provided and from the Facebook photo URL on which it is hosted.
A sitting state-level constitutional officer posted a signed Facebook statement that endorses one candidate in a contested statewide runoff and characterizes the other as unfit for the office. The post carries a personal-capacity disclaimer. The open questions are whether the post was made on a personal page or an official Treasurer’s Office channel; whether Goldfinch will respond to the specific allegations; whether the Treasurer’s Office will treat the statement as an official act of the office; and whether the rest of the South Carolina press corps will follow. The runoff is nine days out.
## Further Reading
Loftis endorses Stumbo – Curtis M. Loftis, Jr., Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1551223906572332&set=a.471353791226021
Loftis endorses Stumbo – SC State Election Commission, June 9, 2026 primary results: https://www.scvotes.gov/
Loftis endorses Stumbo – South Carolina Code Section 8-13-1346 (State Ethics Act): https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t08c013.php
Loftis endorses Stumbo – *SC Daily Gazette*, “SC Senate votes to remove state treasurer over $1.8B accounting error” (April 22, 2025): https://scdailygazette.com/2025/04/22/sc-senate-votes-to-remove-state-treasurer-over-1-8b-accounting-error/
Loftis endorses Stumbo – *The Post and Courier*, coverage of the Treasurer’s Office controversy: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/south-carolina-curtis-loftis-treasurer-removal/article_69cecc38-f12d-4215-88a2-2b9237b572f5.html
Loftis endorses Stumbo – FITSNews, “The Curious Case of Stephen Goldfinch’s Disappearing Federal Stem Cell Charge” (April 7, 2026): https://www.fitsnews.com/2026/04/07/the-curious-case-of-stephen-goldfinchs-disappearing-federal-stem-cell-charge/
– ABC News 4, “Pascoe announces endorsement of David Stumbo in SC GOP Attorney General runoff”: https://abcnews4.com/news/local/pascoe-announces-endorsement-of-david-stumbo-in-sc-gop-attorney-general-runoff-local-politics-stephen-goldfinch-election
– Fox Carolina, “First Circuit Solicitor Pascoe endorses Stumbo in attorney general runoff” (June 12, 2026): https://www.foxcarolina.com/2026/06/12/first-circuit-solicitor-pascoe-endorses-stumbo-attorney-general-runoff/
Loftis endorses Stumbo –*SC Daily Gazette*, “Runoffs will determine GOP nominees for attorney general, agriculture commissioner” (June 9, 2026): https://scdailygazette.com/2026/06/09/runoffs-will-determine-gop-nominees-for-attorney-general-agriculture-commissioner/
– David Stumbo for Attorney General campaign site: https://votestumbo.com/
– Stephen Goldfinch for Attorney General campaign site: https://www.goldfinchforag.com/
– Office of the State Treasurer newsroom: https://treasurer.sc.gov/about-us/newsroom/
