A field of Republican challengers in the special Senate primary next month is setting up another test of the president’s political clout.
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President Donald Trump has put his weight behind Sen. Darline Graham in her bid to succeed her late brother, Lindsey Graham, for a full term. But rather than embracing the president’s endorsed candidate in a whirlwind election less than two weeks away, influential conservative activists in South Carolina say they’re not swayed.
Trump’s conservative base could again reject one of his chosen candidates this year — as they did in South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary in June — as his supporters question whether the president is acting with their top priorities in mind.
“People are going to be independently minded in this, and I don’t think that Trump is the end all, be all that he used to be,” said CJ Westfall, chairman of the Dorchester County Republican Party.
Many conservative activists say they aren’t sold on Graham because of her lack of a political record, besides her public support for her brother.
Trump initially appointed Graham to serve the remaining six months of her brother’s term, then quickly backed her after she unexpectedly decided to seek a full term. A dozen GOP candidates filed to run in the Aug. 11 primary election before this week’s deadline. They include U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, who have conservative voting records in Congress, and former governor Mark Sanford.
The crowded special election is expected to go to an Aug. 25 runoff. And runoff elections, Westfall said, “typically bring out the hard core of the hard core.”
Even national Republican operatives sympathetic to Darline Graham, and who were aligned with her brother, are privately conceding that her odds of success in the primary race appear slim.
In interviews, more than a dozen South Carolina Republican operatives and activists described three issues working against Graham: She had never held office and is little-known across the state, despite her brother’s high profile. Her association with her brother could have downsides in a primary; Lindsey Graham had struggled to please many in Trump’s MAGA-aligned base in recent years because of his hawkishness and willingness to work with Democrats, and he had spent $20 million to fend off a primary challenge this year from the right. And some are simply irked that Trump wants to hand off a coveted six-year term to someone based on family ties, rather than a proven conservative record.
Chad Walldorf, a longtime Republican donor and activist in South Carolina, said he respects Darline Graham’s long career as an advocate in the state for people with disabilities.
“But it’s just hard for that to suddenly translate into a six-year Senate term in a month,” Walldorf said. “And that’s the leap voters are being asked to make.”
Graham, who previously led South Carolina’s Commission for the Blind, has taken steps to demonstrate her conservative bona fides since she was sworn in two weeks ago. She has worked to pass legislation that her brother championed to sanction Russia, and she has announced support for bills to defend gun rights, oppose abortion, support law enforcement and limit birthright citizenship.
In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, she suggested she would focus more on domestic policy than the national security issues her brother emphasized. Darline Graham also endorsed Trump’s demand on Monday that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) keep senators in Washington until they approve the Save America Act, a voting bill that Trump has pressured Thune for months to pass.
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Following Lindsey Graham’s funerals this week, Darline Graham plans to resume campaigning Thursday, seeking to portray herself as more conservative than her brother, according to a person familiar with her campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy.
“Darline is really in for a dogfight,” said one Republican official working on Senate races, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The person said private polling has not shown Graham pulling significantly ahead in the crowded field. The national official — like many in South Carolina conservative political circles — said they do not expect Graham to win the runoff election, given her limited time to introduce herself to voters.
Randy Page, executive vice president of the socially conservative Palmetto Family Council, cited the low, 10 percent turnout in the party’s June runoff election as he predicted lower participation in the special Senate primary and even lower turnout for a special runoff. Page said that such small electorates tend to favor someone who, “frankly, is known as a movement conservative.”
Norman, who has name recognition and a statewide campaign operation after finishing third in the GOP primary for governor, is widely considered to be the favorite for the nomination. Trump intended to endorse Fry for the six-year term, until Graham decided she wanted to run, according to two people with knowledge of Trump’s decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Norman has secured the endorsements of conservative Sens. Rick Scott (R-Florida) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), along with upstate sheriffs, while Fry has the backing of 40 Republican state legislators. Rep. William Timmons (R-South Carolina) has endorsed Graham.
While Graham has received endorsements from several Republican Senate colleagues, she has yet to secure the public backing of two key Senate leaders — Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign operation, and Thune. Much of Lindsey Graham’s remaining campaign cash will be transferred to the NRSC to be spent on behalf of his sister, according to a person with knowledge of the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. But the person said those funds will be limited and probably well under $1 million.
Some grassroots conservative activists in the state have noted that Darline Graham, according to election records, did not cast a vote in the 2024 presidential primary. South Carolina is a key early state in the process of determining a party’s presidential nominee, and Trump defeated a former governor, Nikki Haley, in that primary election.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, including on whether Trump intends to travel to South Carolina to campaign for Graham.
Trump was forced to issue a co-endorsement in the state’s June gubernatorial primary runoff to avoid a political loss, after his first pick, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, failed to gain the support of the majority of his base. Her opponent, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who came in second place behind Evette in the primary, ultimately consolidated supporters of the other Republican candidates in the race and won the runoff by 37 percentage points.
Evette’s loss followed similar rejections of Trump-endorsed primary candidates by Republican voters in the Georgia and Iowa governor’s races, as well as outrage from Trump’s base this spring after he was reported to be considering endorsing the reelection of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Trump ultimately abandoned the plan to endorse Cornyn — whom he had once labeled a “RINO,” or a Republican in name only — instead putting his eleventh-hour support behind MAGA candidate Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general.
“Trump’s endorsements haven’t always been correct in the voters’ eyes,” said Mark Lynch, Graham’s main primary challenger this spring, who is again running to succeed him. “We’re not going to have a coronation in this state and elect Darline as the queen, underneath the king, Lindsey.”
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Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
