Darline Graham won the Republican nomination for a full term in the U.S. Senate seat she inherited from her brother, defeating U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in a special primary runoff to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The result, called Tuesday night, sets up a November contest that will decide who represents South Carolina for the remainder of the decade.
Unofficial returns showed Graham winning 193,396 votes to Norman's 175,327, a margin of about five points. The runoff followed an initial ten-candidate primary on Aug. 11 in which neither contender cleared 50 percent; Graham led that field with roughly a third of the vote and Norman followed with about a quarter.
Lindsey Graham, a fixture of Senate foreign policy debates for nearly two decades, died July 11 at age 71 after a heart-related illness. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham, a political newcomer with no prior elected office, to fill the seat on an interim basis, and she quickly became the favorite once President Trump endorsed her over Norman, a five-term congressman and House Freedom Caucus member who had placed third in South Carolina's earlier governor's primary this year.
Trump's political operation poured resources into the race on Graham's behalf, including a rally in Myrtle Beach and roughly $830,000 in spending by his allied super PAC, MAGA Inc. Graham leaned into her outsider status on the trail, telling voters at one stop that her lack of political experience was the point, not a liability.
The critics say I shouldn't run for the Senate. They say I'm not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.
Darline Graham
Turning to the general election
Norman, who had cast himself as the anti-establishment choice against a candidate he argued was chosen by party insiders, struck a more resigned tone after the loss.
I don't like it, but I accept it.
Ralph Norman
Graham now faces Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, in the Nov. 3 general election for the remainder of the six-year term. South Carolina has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and Trump carried the state by 18 points in 2024, making Graham the heavy favorite to formally succeed her brother in Washington.
