Rep. Ralph Norman announced on Saturday his plan to run in the special primary election to fill former South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s vacant seat, becoming the first major candidate to enter the race.
Graham’s death on July 11 immediately spurred interest among conservatives, including Norman, in securing the GOP nomination in South Carolina Republicans’ first contested open-seat Senate primary in over two decades.
“I’m running for the United States Senate because our country is at a crossroads,” Norman said in a message posted to his campaign’s website Saturday. “President Trump needs proven conservative fighters standing with him — not politicians who fold when the pressure comes. Washington doesn’t need more talkers. It needs people who will do exactly what they told the voters they’d do.”