South Carolina Republicans hold primary to pick Senate replacement for the late Lindsey Graham

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Just two months after nominating Lindsey Graham to return to the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Republicans are casting 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 out the final months of her brother’s term, is trying 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 have 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 features one of Lindsey Graham’s foes from earlier this year, as well as two U.S. House members as well as Mark Sanford, the former governor and congressman who is seeking a political comeback in a field crowded with familiar faces.

Will goodwill toward Lindsey Graham boost his sister at the polls?

Lindsey Graham suffered a tear in his aorta at his Washington home and died on July 11.

Before funeral observances for Lindsey Graham in Washington and South Carolina had even concluded, the campaign was on. State law proscribes a compressed timeline that forced candidates to navigate the decorum of mourning the senator’s death while also 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. She was sworn in with her family and 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.

While the millions in the president’s campaign account aren’t funds that Darline Graham could directly access in a run of her own, there was no limit to how much could be transferred to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is already paying for advertising to support her.

In addition, a super PAC that once supported Lindsey Graham said it would spend $900,000 backing Darline Graham’s candidacy, including mailers touting her as “President Trump’s choice” and saying she’s “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 has snapped up endorsements from other lawmakers, including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, as well as South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.

One of the most conservative members in the House, Norman is well-known across South Carolina for being a fiscal conservative. At times, however, he’s been at odds with Trump and backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary.

Also in the 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 district in the Myrtle Beach area.

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 a bid to retake his former U.S. House seat, saying then he was quitting the race to set up a nonprofit to address the national debt, his signature issue.

Sanford had entered that contest on the last day of filing, when the race already was full of other Republican candidates, many of whom had spent months laying the groundwork for their campaigns. He’s been crisscrossing South Carolina in his Senate bid, reintroducing himself to voters after more than a decade out of statewide office.

Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who tried to oust Graham in the regular Republican primary last month, swiftly relaunched his campaign following Graham’s death. Calling himself an “America First” candidate, Lynch has campaigned as a Trump supporter, but during the June primary, 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 primary in June outright. Having set up her entire 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.

That contest was the most expensive in state history, and among the country’s most expensive congressional races, ever.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP