Southern Charm's Thomas Ravenel Announces Run for South Carolina Governor After Drug Charges Cut Short Last Political Stint

Thomas Ravenel is running for office for a fourth time.

The Southern Charm alum, 62, announced on Thursday, Feb. 6, that he plans on entering the race for Governor of South Carolina in 2026. In a statement posted to X, Ravenel hinted at his intentions and shared a cryptic message for his opponents.

“I’m running for Governor of South Carolina and none of the lightweights currently in the race are going to stop me,” he wrote. “I have a message that’s going to change not just South Carolina but the entire country.”

This is not the first time Ravenel has entered the political sphere. He first ran in the Republican primary race for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2004 and was later fined $19,500 by the Federal Election Commission for improperly filing reports for the failed bid, the Associated Press reported at the time.

He went on to serve as South Carolina’s treasurer in 2007, a position that lasted all of five months before he was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine. He was quickly suspended from the role and resigned a month later.

Ravenel spent 30 days in an Arizona rehab later that year and pleaded guilty to “conspiring to buy and distribute less than 100 grams of cocaine,” for which he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison.

In 2014, while appearing on Southern Charm, he attempted to return to a government position when he once again ran for a U.S. Senate seat — this time as an independent candidate against incumbent Lindsey Graham. Ravenel finished with 3.9 percent of the vote.

That same year, Ravenel was accused of assault by Lauren Moser, the hairdresser of Kathryn Dennis. Dennis is his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two children. 

According to her police report, obtained by The Charleston City Paper, Ravenel allegedly swung a door multiple times, striking Moser and eventually causing her to fall down three steps and into some bushes. Ravenel was never charged for the incident.

Then, in 2018, real estate agent Ashley Perkins, who met Ravenel in 2015 on a dating app, claimed he sexually assaulted her mother. Ravenel denied these allegations at the time but soon after exited Southern Charm.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of assault and battery in the third degree in 2019 and was ordered to pay a $500 fine along with a 30-day suspended sentence. He also agreed to pay $80,000 to a nonprofit called People Against Rape as part of his plea deal.

Ravenel has also been outspoken about his political views in the past. In 2016, he supported now-President Donald Trump despite his inability to vote after being convicted of a federal crime.

“I can’t vote in the Presidential race because of my conviction but you can,” he wrote in a Facebook post at the time. “If you want to put back into The White House someone who looted it when she left and increased her net worth from $0 to $ 350 million by selling out our national security then vote for the great con artist Hillary. If you believe that our Country should be great and provide equality and opportunity to ALL its citizens then you must vote for Trump.”