Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the push for electric vehicles “ideology run amok” at South Carolina's Republican Party headquarters in July.

Former President Donald Trump called EVs “ridiculous” in a January speech at the Statehouse, followed by “these people are so crazy” in describing proponents during a Columbia stop in August.

Frequently, though, the frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination are on stage next to South Carolina Republican politicians who are major boosters of the state’s burgeoning EV industry.

The clash creates an awkward juxtaposition between state-level Republicans hoping to deliver jobs and the party’s presidential candidates hoping to ride a decidedly gasoline-powered culture war platform to the White House.

In recent years, South Carolina has become an electric vehicle mecca with Gov. Henry McMaster, who is an ardent Trump supporter, leading the way.

“The leadership, and I would say a majority of South Carolinians, are for electric vehicles,” said state Rep. Chris Murphy, a North Charleston Republican who was an enthusiastic backer of a major incentive package for an EV maker this spring. Murphy's district is just down Interstate 26 from a recently announced $3.5 billion electric battery plant.

“Now, are we 100 percent behind it? I don’t know,” he added.

Trump and DeSantis certainly aren’t, often maligning electric vehicles with some of South Carolina's EV supporters right next to them.

DeSantis, unprompted, lit into electric vehicles (with Murphy standing behind him) during an event in Columbia. At the Statehouse speech, McMaster was standing just to the right of Trump as he mocked EV drivers.

“We’re all going to be looking for a little plug-in,” the former president said before pantomiming “‘Does anyone have a plug-in? My car just stopped. I’ve been driving for an hour and fifty-one minutes.’ It’s ridiculous.”

McMaster laughed next to the former president.

At the Silver Elephant Dinner in August, Trump got the audience to loudly shout “no” when he asked whether they wanted “all-electric” vehicles. McMaster and Statehouse Republicans sat in the front rows.

“It’s a stunning divergence,” said Bob Inglis, a conservative Republican who represented the Upstate in Congress for a dozen years and now leads republicEn, a group that advocates free market solutions to climate change.

“Do you realize where you are?” he said of any of the EV-bashing presidential candidates. “You’re in South Carolina that’s going to lead this thing, and why are you talking that way?”

The attacks on EVs may be a way to take a shot at President Joe Biden, said Ben Prochazka, executive director of the Electrification Coalition, a group that advocates for electrification to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

“We’re in a presidential campaign season, and … it’s an opportunity to create somewhat of a talking point around one of the key initiatives from the current administration,” he said.

EV-sensitive South Carolina Republicans say the Trump and DeSantis attacks are more directly an objection to blue-state mandates for the adoption of electric vehicles, like in California where all new cars sold in 2035 must be zero-emissions vehicles.

“He’s just pointing out that if you go the route of California that is not wise economic policymaking,” Murphy said of DeSantis, whom he’s endorsed.

McMaster and Republican legislators stress they don’t support mandates either.

Trump and DeSantis do fiercely attack electric vehicles mandates, but their comments often go beyond that, evincing a general skepticism of the technology. The pair say that because many electric vehicles are made in China and the minerals that go into them are mined there, using more EVs will increase dependency on a rival nation.

They also argue that EVs could overwhelm the power grid.

South Carolina Republicans say the solution for too many EVs made in China is to make them in South Carolina. State Rep. Jay West, R-Belton, is leading a legislative committee studying how the state can prepare its grid and build EV infrastructure.

Inglis thinks the opposition goes deeper, with Trump and DeSantis using electric vehicles as another proxy in the fight over American culture.

“You might tell me to go see Freud when I tell you this, but I think it’s even sort of turned into a question of manliness and reliability,” Inglis said.

Concerns about muscle power often fade when people first push a Tesla accelerator, he added.

“They’re playing to a base that feels like they are losing the culture,” Inglis said. “A lot of this isn’t about EVs.”

Elsewhere in the GOP presidential field, during her June CNN town hall former Gov. Nikki Haley said U.S. infrastructure is not ready for EVs because they are on average heavier than gas-powered vehicles.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., hasn't spoken extensively about electric vehicles on the campaign trail, but he praised the Berkeley County battery factory last December.

"I’m excited to see the work begin because the domestic production of these batteries will create more jobs and opportunities for our growing state," he said in a statement, according to WIS, a Columbia television station.

Other S.C. Republicans have championed the state’s EV boom. McMaster held an electric vehicles summit in October, ordered state agencies to recruit EV manufacturers and his administration has worked at lightning speed to secure deals.

It’s working.

Redwood Materials will build a $3.5 billion Berkeley County electric battery plant forecast to employ 1,500, while Scout Motors, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, will build a $2 billion factory in Blythewood employing 4,000 to make electric SUVs.

BMW is investing $1.7 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing in Greer. A $1.3 billion plant to process lithium, key to electric vehicles’ batteries, is going up in Chester County.

“Republicans have always embraced innovation and the private sector,” said Nick Murray, the South Carolina director for Conservatives for Clean Energy. “That’s conservatism 101.”

McMaster also seems genuinely intrigued by the technology.

“I’ve ridden in one – had 120 horsepower – scared me to death,” he said with a chuckle Aug. 16.

Legislators, led by House Speaker Murrell Smith, a Sumter Republican who recently endorsed Trump, overwhelmingly passed an incentives package to attract Scout Motors through the Republican-dominated Statehouse at high speed.

“Within Republican circles … there is some discontent and there is some excitement,” said West, the GOP state representative who led the Scout Motors bill through House floor votes.

For most Statehouse Republicans, EVs mean jobs, a point West made in an animated floor speech in favor of the Scout Motors bill.

“How many of you can tell me that there are people in your district who do not want higher paying jobs? Anybody? Raise your hand. Be bold,” he said.