COLUMBIA, S.C. — Just two months after nominating Lindsey Graham to return to the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Republicans cast ballots Tuesday in a special primary to pick a replacement following the sudden death of the president’s close ally.
Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, a political unknown tapped to serve the final months of her brother’s term, sought to overcome skepticism about her lack of experience in her campaign to replace him. She picked up President Donald Trump’s swift endorsement though the rare open Senate seat has attracted a broad field, including some of the state’s top Republicans.
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 seeking a political comeback in a field crowded with familiar faces. Polls closed at 7 p.m. EDT, and the top two candidates could be headed to a runoff in two weeks if no one clears a majority of the votes cast Tuesday.
Will goodwill toward Lindsey Graham boost his sister at the polls?
Lindsey Graham died July 11 after suffering a tear in his aorta at his Washington home.
Before funeral observances in Washington and South Carolina had even concluded, the campaign was on. 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 has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Darline Graham. Mailers tout her as “President Trump’s choice” and “Prepared to Carry on Lindsey’s Legacy.”
Two congressmen are among those seeking the nomination
More familiar to South Carolina voters in their own right are two U.S. House members in the race, one of whom already has a statewide profile.
Fresh off an unsuccessful primary run for governor, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman entered the Senate contest 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’s been at odds with Trump, backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary.
Also running is Rep. Russell Fry, who appeared poised to gain Trump’s backing after Lindsey Graham’s death. Despite lacking the president’s endorsement, he announced his own candidacy and has been trying 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 seeks another political comeback
The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 extramarital affair is making yet another attempt to return to public office.
Sanford’s Senate bid comes 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, his signature issue.
Sanford had entered that contest on the last day of filing in a race already full of other Republicans. He’s been crisscrossing South Carolina, reintroducing himself to voters after more than a decade out of statewide office.
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 has campaigned as a Trump supporter, but in June, the president on social media called him a “lunatic” and a “disaster for the Republican Party.”
Who is the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat?
Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s June primary outright. Having set up her campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews has 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.
