Darlene Graham Wins South Carolina Republican Senate Nomination
She will face liberal Democrat Annie Edwards in the November general election.
Darlene Graham, sister of the late Lindsey Graham, has won the South Carolina Republican runoff election against Congressman Ralph Norman.
Graham had been struggling in polling, but Trump went to bat for her to pull her over the line. She will face liberal Democrat Annie Edwards in the November general election. The race shouldn’t be competitive in deep Red South Carolina, but nothing can be taken for granted.
Graham is an unknown politically, so we could be in for some surprises.
The major networks have called the race, with Graham up about 4 points with 90% of the votes counted, as of 9 p.m.
BREAKING: Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s Republican primary runoff, NBC News projects, a victory for Trump, who recruited, endorsed and campaigned for her following her brother Lindsey Graham’s death six weeks ago. https://t.co/vcUaXD28nX
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 26, 2026
Sen. Darline Graham will win the special Republican Senate runoff in South Carolina, CNN's Decision Desk projects, replacing her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the general election ballot. Follow live updates. https://t.co/90BV0MyYzU pic.twitter.com/2Mqt4rVYvF
— CNN (@CNN) August 26, 2026
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Comments
Not sure this is good.
MAGA can write off South Carolina for another six years…
Really ridiculous that red states like SC can’t have solid conservative voices representing them.
Is there any data that shows state Dems crossed over to vote in the GOP primary to swing things more to their liking?
Annie has no chance of winning, thus this “Operation Chaos” travesty.
No More puppets!
We don’t get to declare our party affiliation when we register to vote in SC, so any data would be guesstimates. A lot of us conservatives always felt Lindsey Graham’s campaigns were fueled by $$ donated to multiple opponents who had no chance of beating him but together they divided up the competition and enabled him to sweep the GOP primary every time.
This is surprising – and not good. Zero experience.
How much political experience did #45 have, when he ran in 2016?
Most of his life. What do you think business and contracting are about? Sheesh.
Trump endorsed and supported Graham, knowing full well she lacked qualifications. Is she less qualified than Nixon in Florida or Al Sayed in Michigan? Look, Trump chose her to fill Lindsey’s seat because he wants a senator loyal to him for the remainder of his term, not another Thune, Cassidy, Cornyn, Makowski, or Collins. He also needs to guard against another impeachment attempt by Democrats should they regain control of the House.
Take a look at the “Experienced” Senators that the GOP has today. I’ll take Graham any day over half of them. One thing about no experience is that you are not afraid of inner circle gotchas. Norman is a good man but he has been there a long time and has many under the table connections with you help me and I’ll help you scenarios. Imagine one of you going there just as she is and thinking that I am going to vote according to my heart and brain, not what I’m told to do. I am appalled at the Senators who have years of experience and vote the way they do! Murkowski, Collins, Langsford, McConnell, Paul and several others that I cannot remember their names. If this is what experience gets us then you can have it. What she said about national security was honest because most of the things she wouldn’t know are classified and there is no way for her to know them. Think of the 48 Dem Senators who do know about national security and look at how they vote!
💯
Lack of a security clearance isn’t the issue. That’s a complete dodge. Senators, including Sen Darline Graham Nordone, are granted access to classified data based upon their public office (public seal of access) while the breadth/depth of the classified data they may access is set by the Senate leadership. They don’t undergo the same sort of clearance process that unelected govt officials/employees do. If doesn’t know its b/c she wasn’t interested in finding out by requesting a briefing(s) or Senate leadership didn’t authorize sharing of info. Both of those are troubling.
Heck I haven’t held an active clearance in over a decade and am quite well informed about ‘national security’ matters via publicly available information. It isn’t hard to find info giving the broad outlines of what’s happening and what may happen with a little effort. Of course that’s b/c I have a deep interest in the subject and make a conscious effort to seek out and stay informed …which Sen Darline Graham Nordone hasn’t done by her own admission ‘national security isn’t my thing’.
She may or may not turn out to be great for the MAGA, tea party, center/right populist movement to put America First but a sitting US Senator, as she is, announcing ‘national security isn’t my thing’ seems pretty dang disqualifying to me. I really hope I’m wrong about her b/c I’m really cynical and jaded about how this went down and more so about the willingness of DC establishment to prop up a candidate and get them into office that they can control/manage/influence/direct how to vote.
National security may not be ‘her thing’ today but there’s no reason to believe that she won’t listen to intelligent people on the subject (and, of course, she might listen to dummies). I would like to hear where she considers herself strong, and then judge if that’s truly the case.
Sure everyone has a particular subject area of expertise they know more about than many other things. No dispute there. My quibble is the idea that a sitting Senator who’s using the power of incumbency (no matter how recently obtained) and trying to cash in electorally on the strength of her Brother’s name is being defended b/c ‘classified (info) and she has no way to know it’. That simply isn’t true.
I dont understand the angst about Graham. She is solildly conservative. Norman was a petulant problem, there are enough of those already in the Senate.
I wonder if Mitch McConnell has a sister…
All the bellyaching about she has “no experience.” Perhaps not “experience” in DC, but she’s got valuable life experience that is worth something. She’s serious and she will learn what she needs to learn. Hate to use the example of AOC, but there’s that.
Trump got our new senior Senator Tim Scott to endorse Darline too, and we were inundated with ads these last 2 weeks from the pro-Graham side. The pro-Norman team, not so much.
The voters of SC made their choice and now we all gotta live with it. My prediction is she will vote for higher deficit spending, more foreign entanglements, more Fed power, less individual liberty, more corporatist crony capitalism particularly re infringement of property rights to assist corporate goals, As a sitting Senator she’s already made a troubling choice for 2A advocacy by refusing to join the handful (3 dozen or so) Reps/Sen who signed/sent a letter to DoJ asking them not to appeal the recent ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v ATF which in effect undermines if not quite destroyed the 2A restrictions of the National Firearms Act. With a degree in Social work, a background as a disability advocate and now dropping her Married name Nordone in favor of her Maiden name Graham to further her political aspirations, entering a race as an incumbent after the Gov very publicly appointed her out of regard for/empathy for her deceased Brother as what he believed was a interim appointment/caretaker to keep political influence out of the race for a full term …one would be forgiven for noting these seem like things that would describe a d/prog.
She can be an undistinguished Senator, or she can become distinguished for promoting bad ideas.
Well…like the man said: Alright…let’s see where this goes.
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