Potential SC governor hopefuls pounce on border politics after hit-and-run death
On April 2, USC student Nate Baker was killed in a hit and run collision at Assembly and Blossom Streets. The fatal crash at first didn’t garner public comments from high-profile politicians.
The next day, police reported the driver of the pickup truck was wanted by U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement. Then, politicians considering runs for S.C. governor pounced on that detail.
Within 20 minutes of each other, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and Attorney General Alan Wilson all posted on X about Rosali Fernandez Cruz being in the country illegally.
Cruz was detained at the southern border in December 2016 at the tail end of the Obama administration, but later released. He did not appear for court appearances and in September 2018, during Trump’s first term, and an immigration judge ordered Cruz be removed from the country.
It’s an indication how the ongoing debate over security at the southern border continues to be a driving issue in Republican politics.
A 2024 South Carolina Republican presidential primary exit poll showed immigration and the southern border was the top issue among GOP voters. Ensuring a secure southern border has been a signature issue for President Donald Trump, who is very popular among the Republican voting base in the state.
In South Carolina , 3-year-old Maddie Hines died in a car crash when the SUV she was riding in was struck by pickup truck driven by a man who was deported during the Trump administration but came back to the country during the Biden administration. Her godfather, former state Rep. Stewart Jones relayed the story during his unsuccessful 2024 run for Congress.
The death of nursing student Laken Riley, who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant while she was jogging, led to a federal law that requires federal officials to detain migrants if they have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting. The law also allows states to sue the federal government for alleged immigration enforcement failures.
Although the race to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, who cannot run for reelection in 2026, has no official candidates, potential hopefuls have jockeyed for position, traveled the state and repeated Republican talking points.
At the center of this case is the 21-year-old Baker. He was a student in the Darla Moore School of Business at USC originally from Glen Allen, Virginia. He played baseball, lacrosse and volleyball in high school. At a memorial service he was remembered for his kindness.
Baker’s family also did not have direct ire for Cruz.
“Mr. Cruz, my family and I know this was an accident, we are praying for you,” Leslie Baker, Nate Baker’s mother, said at his memorial service.
Cruz is now facing four charges: hit and run resulting in death, failure to render aid, failure to yield the right of way, and driving without a license. An initial appearance is still pending, according to online court records.
Potential governor hopefuls take to social media
Shortly after Cruz’s immigration status was disclosed, several social media messages were posted by Republicans considering vying for their party’s nomination for governor.
“This senseless tragedy is one more example of how the previous administration failed us by not securing our border or taking proper action against illegal aliens,” Evette posted at 5:20 p.m. April 3 about Baker’s death.
At 5:06 p.m. Wilson took to X.
“Sadly, Nathanial “Nate” Baker, a USC student, has passed away after being hit by an illegal immigrant with no license, who had been wanted by ICE since 2018,” the attorney general’s personal page posted.
Mace was combative with her message.
“South Carolina’s children are our heart and soul — I’ll fight to my last breath to prevent another parent from burying their kid because of an illegal alien,” Mace posted at 5:01 p.m.
Even those who aren’t in the leading group of potential candidates made sure they weighed-in.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, jumped in and criticized former President Joe Biden.
“My thoughts & prayers are with the Baker family after this tragic news,” Norman posted on X at 4:36 p.m. April 3. Under the Biden administration, every state became a border state. We must work together to make America safe again.
The next day, Evette directly invoked Biden into the conversation.
“Let’s be very clear. Nate Baker was killed by an illegal immigrant. We cannot continue to sugarcoat the horrific and lasting impact that Biden’s open border policies will continue to have on our people,” Evette posted.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, who is considering a run for governor, also weighed in on social media and posted about changing the state constitution in 2024 to saying only U.S. citizens can vote in elections instead of every U.S. citizen. It is a question that could have helped boost Republican turnout, even though voter registration forms are not given to noncitizens.
“The tragic death of a USC student due to a reckless driver wanted by ICE is why we have to ensure we never grant safe haven to illegal immigrants in S.C.,” Kimbrell said. “To this end, I was a sponsor of legislation to support an SC SLED illegal immigration enforcement unit and helped amend the State Constitution last year to oppose any status for illegal immigrants to vote here. We will never be a sanctuary state!”
Evette, Mace and Wilson have all discussed Baker’s case on national television.
Addressing the politics around Baker’s death
Political science professor Scott Huffmon, the director of the Winthrop University Poll, said stories such as Baker’s can be used to try to score political points.
“Behind those political points are policy issues their constituents want to address,” Huffmon said. “Obviously one of them is an illegal immigrant. It follows the narrative that these people are murderers and criminals and all that. While that doesn’t match statistics, the simple fact was here was an illegal immigrant that caused someone’s death.”
And not weighing in could be a political misstep for those considering running for the GOP nomination.
“That’s not to say they don’t also believe very strongly this was an injustice and something should be done about it, but there would be political consequences to not take a serious and strong stance on it,” Huffmon said.
Mace defended commenting on the incident, insisting it wasn’t about political gain.
“As a mom, I was deeply, deeply moved and disturbed, and it was a huge tragedy,” Mace said. “It’s not political. This young man was killed at the hands of an illegal who should not have been on the streets of South Carolina. There’s nothing political about the tragedy, and I think it’s very, very sad, but I wanted to make sure that we recognized his death, we recognized his family and the pain and trauma that they are going through.”
Immigration enforcement remains a top issue among the GOP voting base which dominates South Carolina voters.
“I think that it has affected not only our economy and safety issues like this,” Carol Leake, 68, of Fountain Inn. “I think all of us encounter these situations on the road just about every day with the bad drivers (and) probably they are not used to following the same laws that we do as it goes to the road.”
For Leake, even though most immigration enforcement is handled by the federal government, she wants to know potential candidate’s views on handling undocumented people.
“You want to know everybody’s perspective and what’s important to them, because you want to know as much as you can about somebody before you vote for them,” Leake said.
Wilson’s office takes over prosecution
Out of all of the potential GOP hopefuls for the governor’s office, Wilson may be in the closest position to the Baker-Cruz case.
Wilson, the state’s top prosecutor, announced his office would take over prosecution of Cruz after it reached out to the Richland County Solicitor’s office.
He denied it was political.
“I think anybody politicizing this case would be reprehensible and abhorrent,” Wilson said. “For us obviously, we’re going to treat this case like we do any other case, and we’re going to obviously take it through the criminal justice system.”
Among its roles, the attorney general’s office has supervisory authority over the prosecution of any criminal cases in the state. His office oversees prosecution of multijurisdictional drug offenders, obscenity, public corruption, election fraud, computer crime violations, terrorism and securities fraud.
“Everything I do is accused of being political, and everything I don’t do is accused of being political,” Wilson added. “So no matter what I do, I’m upsetting somebody somewhere. So we’re just gonna do the right thing, and we’ll let the public judge for itself what it is.”
His office acknowledged it’s not common for the attorney general’s office to take a traffic-related case, but Wilson said his office has been working on immigration enforcement-related cases. He could not further comment how the Cruz case would fit into his office’s efforts, but said further information is expected in the future.
A review of the attorney general’s office’s news releases from the last year show Wilson has visited the southern border, called on county sheriffs to partner with ICE for immigration enforcement, defended the Trump administration’s actions to combat Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, defended Trump’s call to limit birthright citizenship, supported an Arizona law that required voters to show proof of citizenship when they registered, and joined a lawsuit against the extension of the Affordable Care Act to children who were brought into the country illegally by their parents.
“There’s a broader issue here that our office has already been involved with, and that is immigration enforcement,” Wilson said. “I can’t go into a lot of it right now, but our office is currently reviewing a number of matters that are involving the immigration system here in our state, and we’re working with our federal partners.”
Mace, who was critical of Wilson for not prosecuting a rape and voyeurism case she brought forward even though the case has not been referred to his office, was cynical over the attorney general’s office taking the Cruz case.
“Why hasn’t he taken over a lot of cases, and he’s just taking it over because it’s a PR coup for him,” Mace told reporters in Greenville ahead of that county’s GOP convention. “So he’s not doing it because he means it. He’s not doing it because it’s legitimate. You’ve seen how he’s bungled lots of cases.”
When asked about Wilson taking over the case, Evette instead expressed confidence in the state’s legal system.
“I think the fact that we have set up all the laws that we need to be able to prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law,” Evette said. “I have fullest confidence that, he will be charged and the fullest extent of the law will actually be carried out.”
Is this a bigger tragedy?
Fatal car crashes aren’t unusual. But because of Cruz’s immigration status, Baker’s death is receiving more attention.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott weighed in and blamed the Biden Administration. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster had a phone call with Baker’s parents.
“Every single death that happens is a tragedy, but this one was preventable,” Evette said. “When you look at this and you think during the Biden administration, they could have done more. They stepped away. They didn’t support ICE, and those failed policies coming out of DC, we were countering.”
“If that particular driver wasn’t in our country illegally, the outcome of this would have been different,” Evette added.
Mace said even statewide officials have blame for fatal crash.
“Nate wasn’t just failed by one illegal alien, he was failed by years of cowardice from state officials who refused to act,” Mace said. “As a mom, my heart breaks. As a lawmaker, I’m furious. This never should’ve happened. When our statewide leaders had the chance to act last year against a sanctuary sheriff, they looked the other way.”
Wilson was more reserved in comparing the level of tragedy when it comes to fatal crashes.
“Anytime someone loses their life in a traffic incident like this, it’s tragic period,” Wilson said. “Someone lost their life, and that is tragic.”
This story was originally published April 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Potential SC governor hopefuls pounce on border politics after hit-and-run death."
