Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman for the Republican nomination for Senate in South Carolina, a victory that was also one for President Donald Trump, who pushed for her to stay on in the seat held recently by her late brother.
The Associated Press called the race at 9:02 p.m. Tuesday for Graham, whom Trump endorsed, campaigned for and backed with an $800,0000 last-minute effort from MAGA Inc. to turn out her voters.
“We got the vote out where we needed to,” senior Trump political adviser James Blair told NOTUS. “Great win for the President and for Darline.”
Norman had initially sought the South Carolina governorship and later bid for the open Senate seat, leaving South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District with an open race. The congressman is known for being adversarial at times to both House Republican leaders and Trump; Norman endorsing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential election and routinely criticizes his party’s agenda in Congress.
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Graham’s win bolsters Trump’s influence ahead of the midterms, despite several candidates losing their primaries while carrying his endorsement.
Graham was appointed, at the president’s urging, to fill the remaining months of her brother Lindsey Graham’s term after his sudden death in July. Trump had touted her candidacy as a way to “honor the legacy of her beloved brother.”
Though there was little public polling ahead of the special election due to the tight timeline, a Trafalgar Group poll of the race released late Monday found the two candidates deadlocked at 48% each with a 2.9% margin of error. Some Republicans began to view a Graham victory as increasingly unlikely, NOTUS reported, after some campaign missteps.
In a televised debate on Aug. 18, Graham said she was “not that informed on national security” — a statement that stands in sharp contrast to her late brother’s deep investment and hawkish positions on foreign policy. The blunder was quickly picked up by Norman, who billed himself as an experienced “true conservative” while casting Graham as a candidate propped up by “left-wing Democrats.”
Trump traveled to South Carolina on Friday to stump for for Graham, urging voters to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.” When asked about her awkward answer in the debate, Trump told reporters, “All she was is being honest.”.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham to serve the remainder of her brother’s Senate term and officially endorsed her for the full term ahead of the runoff election.
Lindsey Graham’s passing left Republicans scrambling to find a replacement because the late, four-term senator had already won the primary for his seat in June. The Republican field quickly expanded to 10 candidates — including Graham, Norman, Rep. Russell Fry, businessman Mark Lynch and Mark Sanford, the former congressman and governor.
The most prominent candidates knocked out in the primary split their endorsements, with Fry backing Graham and Sanford and Lynch throwing their support behind Norman.
Graham will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November in the general election for the Senate seat, which is rated “Solid R” by the Cook Political Report.
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