Man Identifying As "Superman" and "God" Arrested In His Underwear On The Charleston High Battery

An Anticipated Democratic Candidate For Governor of South Carolina In 2026 Was Arrested While Walking Around, In Only Underwear and Shoes, Shouting Incoherently

William Mullins McLeod Jr., a Charleston attorney floated as Democratic contender for governor of South Carolina in 2026, was arrested on May 14 in a downtown incident that reads like a sample script of Me, Myself, and Irene. According to Charleston police, McLeod was found on the Battery wearing only his underwear and a pair of shoes, allegedly shouting in coherently. When Police approached him, he told them that he was “Superman” and “God”. While South Carolina politics has certainly seen its fair share of eccentricity, this is one of the rare occasions when divine delusion and gubernatorial ambition collide headfirst on the sidewalk nearly naked.

McLeod, 53, is no political neophyte. He’s the former Charleston County Democratic Party chairman and ran for governor in 2010. He earned respect in Democrat circles for his advocacy on behalf of crime victims and progressive political causes. His legal career, rooted in a prominent Lowcountry law family, has long given him credibility within South Carolina’s awkward Democratic landscape. Before this spectacle, Democrat insiders were increasingly naming McLeod as a likely 2026 Democratic candidate, someone who could energize the party’s base and perhaps even challenge the GOP’s stranglehold on the State House.

But optics of the late-night arrest of a self-proclaimed deity in his boxers are a little harder to spin. Police reports describe McLeod as “incoherent, glassy-eyed, and sweating profusely”, symptoms often associated with stimulants, though no drug charges have been filed or toxicology released. His attorney later claimed McLeod was suffering from extreme exhaustion and denied that drugs were involved.

McLeod was released from the Al Cannon Detention Center on a personal recognizance bond the next day, and he is scheduled to appear in court on June 12. Whether this incident is written off as a personal health scare, an isolated lapse in judgment, or something more troubling, it has already complicated what was shaping up to be a difficult gubernatorial campaign for Democrats. For a party still licking its wounds from statewide losses in 2024, the image of a bare candidate ranting in the moonlight is hardly ideal for fundraising. And yet, stranger redemptions have occurred in South Carolina politics—just ask the guy with the Argentine mistress and the Appalachian alibi.

It’s not unheard of for scandal to become a platform—particularly in the South, where narratives of fall and redemption are practically a political tradition. Whether McLeod leans into that tradition or steps aside quietly remains to be seen. One thing is clear: for better or worse, he’s now the most talked-about Democrat in the state.