his first four-year term. After McMaster's first year as governor, The State evaluated his performance. It praised him for adding 17,000 jobs in the state, his accessibility to state legislators, and his handling of Hurricane Irma in 2017, but criticized his "lack of leadership", citing as an example his veto of a gas-tax increase that would have paid for road repairs and replacements for aging school buses, which members of both parties slammed, including McMaster's gubernatorial primary rival Catherine Templeton. The State summed up McMaster's first year as "mixed". 2018 On June 12, 2018, McMaster placed first in the Republican gubernatorial primary, with 155,072 votes. But since that was 42.3% of the vote, less than a majority, he faced John Warren in a runoff. On June 26, McMaster won the runoff with over 53% of the vote. McMaster chose businesswoman Pamela Evette as his running mate, not incumbent lieutenant governor Kevin L. Bryant, who ran against McMaster for the gubernatorial nomination. Trump endorsed McMaster. McMaster defeated Democratic nominee James Smith in the general election with 54% of the vote. 2022 McMaster secured the Republican nomination in the June 14 primary. He defeated the Democratic nominee, Joe Cunningham, in the general election. Tenure Richard Quinn corruption investigation In 2017, McMaster, the University of South Carolina, BlueCross BlueShield, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, and a number of prominent state legislators were connected to Richard Quinn and Associates, a firm he employed for political consulting. Richard Quinn and Associates was named as part of a larger corruption probe Special Prosecutor David Pascoe conducted within the South Carolina General Assembly, which first ensnared then-Speaker Bobby Harrell, who resigned and pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in 2014. McMaster has not been implicated in Pascoe's corruption probe, but four state legislators have been indicted as part of it as of May 2017. McMaster's connections to Richard Quinn and Associates caused him challenges in the South Carolina legislature when replacing two members of the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) Board of Directors whose terms had expired. At the time of McMaster's replacement nominations, the SCPA paid Quinn a consulting fee of $8,100 per month. State lawmakers delayed the vote on McMaster's two nominees for two weeks, citing the ongoing corruption probe that had pulled in three Republican legislators. Both nominees were confirmed after the SCPA voted to cease employing Quinn. McMaster likewise ceased to use Quinn in