Three days after President Trump publicly urged her to run, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham on Monday afternoon announced that -- unsatisfied with serving as an obviously unqualified interim senator through January -- she will run for the full six-year-term that starts in January. The development seemed to brush another potential candidate off the plate, but another one joined the field on Monday. Possibly seeing Trump's endorsement as too ridiculous to be fully intimidating, others may join a field that officially has five candidates.
Graham's sister made the announcement on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Monday night, but a clip of her declaring that she'd run was posted earlier that afternoon, perhaps with the intent to discourage other candidates from filing when the window officially opens today; it closes on Tuesday the 28th:
“I’ve made a decision. I’m in... I can’t see it any other way. I just don’t. I’ve thought, and I’ve prayed, and he’s worked so hard for so long. I just, I can’t just let that die. I’ve got to step in and carry on his legacy. I know he cared about the people of South Carolina so deeply. He worked so hard for them, and I feel like I can do that, too.”
To be clear, Lindsey Graham's "legacy" centers on relentless advocacy for bloody, expensive and often counterproductive regime-change interventions around the globe, to include collaborating with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to persuade Trump to launch a war on Iran on false premises, and fostering the ouster of Ukraine's democratically-elected president before then leading the charge to pour billions of dollars of weapons into an economy-damaging proxy war against Russia.
The start of the new week also brought us a rebranding of Graham's sister. When South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her to be a placeholder for the remainder of her brother's term that ends in January -- and in the days since -- she was universally referred to as Darline Nordone or Darline Graham Nordone. With her announcement, she's suddenly "Darline Graham," even though she remains married to Larry Nordone, about whom very little is publicly known.
The Darline Graham relabeling is obviously meant to capitalize on name recognition, which, aside from the Trump endorsement, is her only political asset. She has never held an elected office. She's commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, and previously held a communications role in the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department. Ever the Trump today, Hannity tried using Monday's softball interview to polish Darline Graham's thin resume. "You've had your own life and success," he said. "You have been the commissioner of South Carolina's commission for the blind. You've held this position since 2019. It's a 130 person agency, $90 million budget you ran, 10 offices across South Carolina ... you've got a lot of experience."
At least one potential opponent seemed to find Trump's endorsement sufficiently threatening: Rep. Nancy Mace, who's poised to hand over her House seat in January after having foregone reelection for a failed bid for governor, had teased at a run on social media within hours of Lindsey Graham's death. On Monday, however, Mace announced she will not enter the GOP special primary election that will take place on Aug. 11, with a potential run-off of the top two finishers on Aug 25. “I’m not running for the U.S. Senate, not because I’m backing down from a fight, but because the one I’m already in matters right now,” she said, referring to her work on laws to protect women and girls who are victims of sexual misconduct.
Undaunted, Congressman Russell Fry jumped into the race on Monday. Fry was reportedly hand-picked by Trump to unseat Republican Tom Rice in 2022, as payback for Rice's vote to impeach Trump over the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot. He won and is considered close to the Trump team. “There is no other way to put it: Lindsey Graham was one of a kind. There is no replacing him. But I believe the best way to honor his legacy is to fight alongside the President just as steadfastly as he did,” Fry said in a statement. Hedging his bets, Fry will also continue pursuing reelection to the House.
Nordone Graham and Fry join a field that includes businessman Mark Lynch, who was trounced by Lindsey Graham in the June GOP primary; Duke Buckner, a lawyer who has previously run for the state's heavily-Democratic 6th Congressional District seat; and US Rep. Ralph Norman. At 73 years old, Norman's age might be a liability, but he's picked up endorsements from Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Turning Point Action and Nancy Mace.
The winner will go up against Democrat pediatrician Annie Andrews, who previously failed to unseat Mace, and who has founded a PAC focusing on issues like climate change, gun control and voting rights. Before Lindsey Graham suddenly died on July 11 from an aortic dissection, the Cook Political Report rated the South Carolina seat "Solid R." That's unlikely to change no matter who wins the Aug 11 GOP primary.
The big question is whether Trump's endorsement and outside spending in a very short race can overcome Darline Graham's lack of credentials -- and perhaps some reluctance among South Carolina Republicans to see their Senate seat treated like inheritable property. So far there's no indication there will be a debate among the candidates. That's a shame for South Carolina voters, but Darline Graham must be relieved that she won't have to face at least four other candidates and a moderator grilling her on a variety of national and international issues she likely knows very little about and has even less experience articulating.