Nancy Mace

A former campaign volunteer for Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was arrested on assault charges.

The volunteer, Blake Garrison Kirsch, allegedly ripped a megaphone from a protester's hands at a Greer campaign event.

Evette's campaign stated Kirsch was never an employee and has since resigned from his volunteer position.

Gubernatorial candidate Nancy Mace condemned the incident, stating the protester was one of her supporters.

A former volunteer with Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette's gubernatorial campaign was arrested on assault charges after ripping a megaphone out of the hands of a protester at a Greer event.

Evette, a candidate for governor of South Carolina, held a campaign rally in Greer on June 8 — the day before primary election day. The event was supposed to close out Evette's statewide campaign bringing together supporters, volunteers, elected officials and voters.

More: Henry McMaster Jr. on Team Evette 'all the way' but not as running mate

Video shows an altercation breaking out between an event attendee and a protester outside of the venue. Blake Garrison Kirsch, who has been charged with third degree assault and battery, walked up to a peaceful protester and ripped a megaphone out of their hands, according to an incident report compiled by the Greer Police Department.

Police say that Kirsch tried to hand officers the megaphone, but he was told to give it back to the protester. The protester, whose name was redacted from the police report, pressed charges against Kirsch.

Megan Finnern, Evette's campaign manager, said that Kirsch had volunteered with Evette's campaign finance committee but was never employed by the campaign. He voluntarily resigned after the incident.

"Our team is deeply disappointed that this occurred," Evette's campaign said in a statement. "We support free speech and do not in any way condone violence. He is not, and has never been, employed by the Evette campaign."

Republican gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-District 1, held a press conference in response to the incident. Mace claims that the protester outside was one of her supporters, and she called Evette a "disgrace to South Carolina."

"I have never seen something more disgusting than the behavior last night that was caught on tape," Mace said. "She could have condemned this last night, she did not. She could have condemned this this morning, she did not."

Polls close at 7 p.m., and the results are expected to trickle in throughout the evening. The Trafalgar Group, an Atlanta-based polling firm, released a poll on the governor's race on June 9 that puts Evette as the frontrunner in the Republican primary. She earned 22.4% of respondents' support, compared to Attorney General Alan Wilson's 20.7%, DOGE SC founder Rom Reddy's 17.5%, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman's 15.9% and Mace's 13.9%.