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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Sen. Darline Graham and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman have advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace the late Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate, one month after his sudden death.
A first-time candidate who was always close to her brother’s political orbit, Darline Graham overcame skepticism about her lack of experience in her campaign to replace him, as she moved forward Tuesday as the top vote-getter to runner-up Norman from a 10-way field en route to an Aug. 25 runoff. Lindsey Graham died July 11, triggering a whirlwind special election season.
Gov. Henry McMaster had appointed Darline Graham to serve the waning months of her late brother’s term. She picked up President Donald Trump’s swift backing, but the rare open Senate seat attracted a broad field, including some of the state’s top Republicans, setting up the latest test of the president’s command over the GOP base.
Darline Graham addressed reporters Tuesday evening flanked by her family and introduced herself anew to the state’s Republicans voters. She boasted of her work with Trump in her first three weeks in the Senate and took a veiled swipe at her opponent, saying she was “guilty as charged” of not being a politician.
“I will spend the next to weeks of this runoff meeting with voters and unlike some politicians listening to their concerns — yes, listening to their concerns,” Graham said, not mentioning Norman by name. “This seat belongs to the people of South Carolina and I will work hard to earn, earn your vote.”
Trump told reporters Tuesday evening that Graham called him after making the runoff to thank him for his support. Trump responded “I think so” when asked if he would campaign for her, but noted he also liked Norman and other candidates in the race, saying, “I mean, they’re all Trumpers.”
Norman has long been a member of the House Freedom Caucus, comprised of the chamber’s most conservative members. He unsuccessfully ran for the GOP gubernatorial nomination earlier this year.
“Let’s win this thing in a big way,” Norman told supporters Tuesday night, as he appealed for party unity heading into the runoff and noted surprising circumstances of the campaign after Graham’s death. “He’s a fixture, we thought he would be here,” Norman said.
For decades, South Carolina voters reliably returned Lindsey Graham to Washington despite periodic primary challengers who accused the dealmaker and foreign policy hawk of being insufficiently conservative.
Tuesday’s contest featured one of Lindsey Graham’s earlier foes, as well as two U.S. House members and Mark Sanford, the former governor and congressman eager for a political comeback in a field crowded with familiar faces. The winner of the runoff will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the general election.
Goodwill toward Lindsey Graham helped boost his sister at the polls
The unexpected primary began even before funeral observances in Washington and South Carolina for Graham, who died at his Washington home after suffering a tear in his aorta, had concluded. State law proscribed a compressed timeline that forced candidates to navigate the decorum of mourning the senator’s death while jockeying to replace him.
A day after Graham’s death was announced, his sister accepted Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s appointment to succeed her brother in an interim capacity and was sworn in with her family and the late senator’s staff standing behind her. A week later, Darline Graham launched into the campaign herself, encouraged to run and then endorsed by Trump.
Some voters said her brother’s reputation helped tilt them to support Darline Graham.
“She’s not a politician, but she was kin to probably one of the greatest senators ever,” Frank Bohn of Horry County said.
While Darline Graham couldn’t directly access the millions in Lindsey Graham’s campaign account, there was no limit to how much could be transferred to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which funded advertising to support her.
A super PAC that once supported Lindsey Graham also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Darline Graham. Mailers touted her as “President Trump’s choice” and “Prepared to Carry on Lindsey’s Legacy.”
Norman vaulted to the runoff over another sitting lawmaker
Fresh off his unsuccessful primary run for governor, Norman entered the Senate contest as one several politicians more familiar to South Carolina voters in their own right, and snapped up endorsements from the likes of Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah.
One of the most conservative House members, Norman is well-known across South Carolina as a fiscal conservative. At times, however, he has been at odds with Trump, backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary.
Another candidate, Rep. Russell Fry, had at one time appeared poised to gain Trump’s backing after Lindsey Graham’s death. Despite lacking the president’s endorsement, he began running and sought to boost his name recognition beyond his pro-Trump, Myrtle Beach-area district.
Voter George Mitford said Fry’s service stood out to him over Darline Graham, who hasn’t been in elected office.
“I just thought he’d probably had more experience in this than she would have had,” Mitford said, adding that he had supported Lindsey Graham’s Senate tenure.
Mark Sanford deprived of another political comeback
The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 extramarital affair failed in yet another attempt to return to public office. Sanford’s Senate bid came just three months after he ended an effort to retake his former U.S. House seat, saying then he was quitting the race to establish a nonprofit to address the national debt.
Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who tried to oust Graham in last month’s regular Republican primary, swiftly relaunched his campaign after Graham’s death. Lynch campaigned as a Trump supporter, but in June, Trump on social media called him a “lunatic” and a “disaster for the Republican Party.”
Who is the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat?
Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s June primary outright. Having set up her campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews had been forced to pivot to a broader critique of the Republican contenders.
No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat here in decades. And when Graham last ran in 2020, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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Collins reported from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. AP reporters Will Weissert in Washington and Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas contributed.
Meg Kinnard And Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press
