SCOOP: Key House Freedom Caucus member ‘seriously considering’ run for governor in 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., is “seriously considering” a run for South Carolina governor, he told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

“I’ve been here eight years, and I’m doing a good job,” Norman said just outside the U.S. Capitol, where he had been helping lead the debate on a government funding bill backed by President Donald Trump. 

Norman said he is a staunch believer in term limits in Congress but added, “I may come back. We’ll see.”

“But the governor’s race has some appeal to it,” he said.

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Rep. Ralph Norman talks with reporters outside the Capitol Hill Club after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Norman first won his House seat in 2016 during the same election that sent Trump to the White House for his first term.

He is a conservative fiscal hawk and a key member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Norman’s House website also touts him as a life-long resident of South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, where he serves.

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President Donald Trump pumps his fist before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Punchbowl News reported earlier this year that Norman was thinking about running for governor. His comments to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, however, appear to be a marked escalation in his flirtations with higher office.

Norman previously mulled a primary challenge against longtime South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

But a run for the governorship could put him on a collision course with a fellow House conservative, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Rep. Nancy Mace questions U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle as she testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

Mace told the Associated Press earlier this year that she was similarly “seriously considering” a run for governor. 

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Another name floating within the Palmetto State is South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Norman and Mace are both vocal Trump supporters, though both had their own public breaks from the president. Norman notably supported fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley for president, but switched to backing Trump immediately after Haley dropped out.

Trump himself has not weighed in on the race.