Darline Graham asked South Carolina voters on Tuesday for a full six-year term in the Senate, turning a brief appointment into a bid for a seat she once never expected to seek. She is running after being appointed to finish out her brother’s term, and she is doing it with Donald Trump’s backing and a campaign built around the idea that she is not one of the politicians in the race.
The 55-year-old, who led South Carolina’s Commission for the Blind before her appointment, has never held elected office. But on Monday she tried to turn that into an advantage, telling voters at Lizard’s Thicket in West Columbia that the other top candidates are politicians and she is not. She said her past three weeks on the trail had felt like “drinking from a fire hose,” and added that she has been “baptized by fire” in the Senate.
That pitch matters now because the South Carolina Senate Primary has become a test of whether a name known in South Carolina can carry a candidate through a fast campaign against better-known politicians. Graham is running against Russell Fry, Ralph Norman and Mark Sanford, all of them familiar figures in Republican politics, while she is trying to translate family recognition and Trump’s support into a full term of her own.
Trump amplified that effort with a telerally on Monday, saying he told Graham, “you’ve got to do this,” and calling her the right person to carry on Lindsey Graham’s legacy. He said she “fully supports the Trump agenda” and praised her as “tough” and “strong.” Graham, for her part, said she had the complete and total endorsement of Trump and said she had sponsored his marquee SAVE America Act and backed his strategy amid the Iran war.
The friction in her campaign is simple and hard to ignore: she is asking voters to trust her with one of the state’s most powerful Republican nominations despite the fact that she has never been elected to anything. Graham answered that criticism by saying she brings fresh change and transferable skill sets, and her supporters argued that a newcomer outside the political class can cut through a stale system. Zoe Owen said she was thrilled Trump was backing someone outside the political arena, and added that Graham lived among people, works among people and could bring fresh eyes and a fresh voice.
The race will not wait for that argument to settle. South Carolina voters decide the GOP nomination Tuesday, and the result will show whether a political novice with a famous surname and only weeks of campaigning can turn a family legacy and a Trump endorsement into a six-year Senate term.
