{"id":825337,"date":"2026-08-25T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825337\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:12:11","slug":"darline-graham-and-ralph-norman-head-to-south-carolinas-senate-runoff-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825337\/","title":{"rendered":"Darline Graham and Ralph Norman head to South Carolina\u2019s Senate runoff | South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reese Boyd, the chair of the Horry county Republican<\/a> party marveled on Monday afternoon at how little time Senator Darline Graham<\/a> and Representative Ralph Norman<\/a> have had to campaign<\/a> for the Senate<\/a> primary: \u201cThis is not the normal way of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that usually lasts at least, you know, the better part of a year,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople normally spend the better part of 18 months getting ready for it. Who knows? This may be the right way to do it? Who knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Graham and Norman will conclude a 45-day campaign sprint<\/a> that began with the unexpected death<\/a> of Lindsey Graham in July.<\/p>\n

Henry McMaster, the state\u2019s Republican governor, appointed<\/a> Graham\u2019s sister, Darline, to serve out<\/a> the remainder of his term. Because Lindsey Graham had won the Republican primary, state law required a fresh election to replace him on the ballot in November. The winner will face Annie Andrews<\/a>, a pediatrician and the Democratic candidate, in a state where Democrats haven\u2019t won statewide in two decades.<\/p>\n

Many observers had expected Darline Graham to serve in a caretaker role while South Carolina<\/a>\u2019s political leadership staged a political knife fight for a rare shot at a US Senate seat. Instead, the political newcomer \u2013 a career civil servant who led the state\u2019s commission for the blind \u2013 surprised the political establishment and announced her decision to stand for a full term \u2013 with the encouragement<\/a> and backing of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Graham overcame concerns about her lack of legislative experience earlier this month, claiming the top spot to advance to the 25 August runoff, from a sprawling, 10-candidate Republican field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have said many times I\u2019m not a politician, certainly not a career politician. I don\u2019t speak politician,\u201d Graham said recently, referring to a well-publicized gaffe in a debate last week with Norman, where she responded to a question about defense policy by saying that<\/a> military stuff \u201cis not my thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Norman has pounced on her comment, highlighting it as an example of her unreadiness for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine if I went to [head football coach] Dabo Swinney at Clemson and any of the coaches and said: \u2018Look, I got a prospect I want you to look at, and I want them to,\u201d Norman said<\/a> to the Associated Press. \u201c\u2018They can start. I want you to sign them up. They can start for the next six years.\u2019 \u2018What\u2019s the qualifications?\u2019 \u2018They\u2019re kin to Tom Brady.\u2019 Tell me how that analogy doesn\u2019t work here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsey Graham had built a reputation<\/a> as a foreign policy hawk<\/a>, who championed the US war against Iran and rallied support for Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion. Darline Graham has framed her candidacy as a way to \u201ccarry my brother Lindsey\u2019s legacy\u201d. Since being sworn in as his successor last month, she has voted along party lines, but little else is known about her politics.<\/p>\n

Norman, who has been called the most conservative member of the US House, is running billboard advertisements on South Carolina<\/a> highways that say \u201cVoting for Ralph Norman is MAGA\u201d as an answer to Trump\u2019s endorsement of Graham.<\/p>\n

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Trump framed his support<\/a> for Darline Graham as the repayment of a favor to his late<\/a> friend<\/a>, Lindsey Graham.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked her to do this,\u201d Trump said on Friday in a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. \u201cI said, \u2018Darline, you gotta do it.\u2019 \u2018Cause everyone loves her, everyone respects her. I\u2019ve known her, through Lindsey \u2026 I think Lindsey respected Darline more than any other person he knows, including me. That does not make me happy. I\u2019m not happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by elevating a relative political unknown whose primary appeal to voters is her promise to follow the president\u2019s lead, Trump has offered one more high-profile test of his influence<\/a> over Republican voters before the midterm elections in 10 weeks, a point he made explicit at the rally on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem that we have is, they say that Trump does great when he\u2019s on the ballot, but when he\u2019s not on the ballot, his people don\u2019t come and they don\u2019t vote for senators, congressmen and other Republicans<\/a>,\u201d the president said. \u201cAnd that these people, they\u2019re running, they\u2019re great. But Trump isn\u2019t actually on the ballot. So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I\u2019m on the ballot. Just come and vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reese Boyd, the chair of the Horry county Republican party marveled on Monday afternoon at how little time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-825337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}