WASHINGTON (AP) — The field of Republican candidates vying to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on November ballots is nearly set, with at least 10 hopefuls filing their paperwork and launching into a two-week sprint toward the Aug. 11 special GOP primary.
It’s been a jumbled and frenetic period during what would have otherwise been Graham’s expected glide path toward a fifth term. He won his June primary outright, and no Democrat has won a statewide-elected office in South Carolina for two decades.
Graham’s sudden death earlier this month at age 71 has sparked a rushed and compressed process leading to a special primary election in just two weeks.
The close of a one-week filing period for the South Carolina contest comes Tuesday, the same day as the first of two funerals across Washington and Graham’s home state. The rare open Senate seat has drawn some of the state’s top Republicans, longshots, familiar faces — and Graham’s sister. If no candidate receives a majority vote, a runoff election will be held Aug. 25.
Darline Graham, the interim appointee, is a political unknown
For years, Darline Graham had been her older brother’s political confidant, appearing in his ads, by his side at rallies and an indelible part of his biography, from their shared roughshod beginnings to his adoption of her following their parents’ deaths.
In the hours after her brother died, Darline Graham stepped into Lindsey Graham’s shoes in the Senate as the appointee to fulfill the remaining months of his current term, selected by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to serve until January. Now she’s running for the nomination to replace him more permanently.
Darline Graham is a political unknown to the South Carolina voters who for decades returned her brother to Washington. Although she had been part of his campaigns, she’s never been a political commodity in her own right, and there have been questions in South Carolina’s GOP circles over whether goodwill toward her brother’s memory is enough to send her to the Senate.
For now, Darline Graham is surrounded by her late brother’s official and political staff. She had the support of President Donald Trump — to whom her brother was a top congressional ally — to seek the seat, as well as his endorsement before she had said publicly that she would do so.
McMaster made no reference to Darline Graham as a placeholder or symbolic appointment, although a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly said the governor, in selecting her, had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.
Two congressmen are vying for the nomination
Fresh off an unsuccessful primary run for governor, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman entered the Senate race and has snapped up endorsements from other House members, including Rep. Nancy Mace, as well as law enforcement officials across the state. One of the most conservative members in the House, Norman is well-known across South Carolina.
Before the emergence of Darline Graham — and their Oval Office meeting after she was sworn in — Trump had previously suggested he could back a potential candidacy from Rep. Russell Fry, who officially entered the special primary shortly after.
Fry, well-known in his strongly pro-Trump, Myrtle Beach-area district, is working to elevate his name ID across other parts of the state since getting into the race and is promoting himself as a stalwart backer of Trump’s policies.
Mark Sanford returns for another campaign
The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 affair is making yet another attempt to return to public office.
Sanford’s Senate bid comes just three months after he shuttered 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.
Other GOP hopefuls include a former Graham challenger
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. He’s expected to put much of his own money into his Senate run.
Other candidates include:
— Duke Buckner, a Walterboro attorney who is a perennial candidate. He has challenged U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone congressional Democrat. Buckner also is a former public school English teacher.
— Mark McBride, the former mayor of Myrtle Beach. He unsuccessfully sought federal office before, including a 2004 Senate primary loss to former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. McBride also lost to Fry in the 2022 GOP primary for the 7th Congressional District.
— Darius Mitchell, a resident of Columbia, who calls himself a “Hip Hop Republican.” In social media posts, he has voiced support for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
— Clark Neilson, a businessman in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has said he plans to build a home on land he owns in Charleston County. He said he’s in the process of becoming a South Carolina resident.
— Sam Shepherd, a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur. He lives in Lexington County and has said he is focusing his campaign on cutting taxes and federal spending.
Who is the Democratic nominee in the Senate race?
Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s primary in June. Having set up her entire campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews will soon find out her new general election opponent.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
