Darline Graham pulled off a victory in the South Carolina Republican Senate runoff — powered by the unwavering backing of President Donald Trump after home-state Republicans raised serious doubts about her campaign.
On Tuesday, the adopted sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham defeated Congressman Ralph Norman, who positioned himself as the authentic and experienced conservative in the race.
NBC News called the race just before 9 pm Eastern.
Norman conceded defeat to Graham, while making clear he is far from pleased with President Trump’s involvement in the race.
‘His policies are good. I never understood why he got in this race,’ Norman said of Trump’s intervention on Graham’s behalf.
‘It is what it is. I’ll accept it.’
Norman also acknowledged that Democrats had achieved what they wanted.
‘I accept it. I don’t like it, but I accept it,’ Norman added.
What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just come and vote. It’s so important,’ Trump told rally goers in South Carolina on August 21
Senator Tim Scott had backed Graham a week before her debate. ‘I wanted to do so with confidence,’ Scott wrote. ‘After watching Darline Graham in the Senate and on the campaign trail, I’m confident she’s the real deal’
Representative Norman seized on the opportunity to call out Graham on her lack of security knowledge after their debate, writing on X the state ‘deserves a candidate who understands foreign policy’
Despite his disappointment, Norman said he would support Graham ‘as best I can.’
Graham is now the strong general election favorite against Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.
Andrews addressed Graham’s win on X, with a picture opposite Graham with the title ‘The sister vs. the doctor.’
‘The field is set and I’m ready to bring this election home,’ Andrews wrote.
Despite a string of damaging gaffes over the last week, Graham enjoyed the support of Trump, who ramped up his efforts on her behalf with a series of in-person and virtual rallies in the final days of the race.
Appearing in Myrtle Beach on Friday, Trump made a direct plea to his supporters to turn out for Graham — telling them to vote as though he himself were on the ballot.
And that’s where Graham procured her biggest advantage over Norman, handily defeating him in Horry County, where Myrtle Beach resides.
Trump had encouraged her to enter the race shortly after the death of her brother.
And in the final stretch before the runoff, Trump’s political machine went all-in for Graham.
MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC, spent more than $827,000 backing her campaign, while Trump held his second tele-rally for Graham on Monday night as he sought to drive his supporters to the polls.
‘I love her,’ Trump told supporters.
‘I asked her to do it. I got her into this whole thing. I have to make sure she gets in because there will be nobody better.’
But Graham’s campaign was rocked by a brutal debate performance that handed her Republican opponent Ralph Norman an instant line of attack.
During the televised debate, Graham was asked about security interests involving Taiwan and the South China Sea.
‘I’m just gonna be honest here. I’m not on national security — I’m not that informed on national security, so… But I do support the military.’
The admission immediately exploded online and gave Norman a ready-made weapon in a race where the Republican congressman had repeatedly argued that South Carolina needs an experienced senator with a deep understanding of foreign policy.
Norman seized on the moment.
‘South Carolina deserves a Senator who understands Foreign Policy. I’m a peace through strength supporter! No more forever wars!’ he wrote on X.
The gaffe was not Graham’s only stumble.
During the debate, she also claimed that 50 million people in South Carolina were living paycheck to paycheck — a staggering figure given that the state has a population of roughly 5.5 million.
Norman pounced.
‘If we’re going to talk about the affordability crisis in our state, we should start by knowing that South Carolina has Checks Notes 5.5 million people,’ he wrote. Former Representative Adam Morgan piled on: ‘She thinks 50 million people live in South Carolina?’
Norman stayed competitive by winning a cluster of northwestern counties around Greenville, but it wasn’t enough.
The power of the Trump endorsement proved to outweigh concerns about Graham and her thin public service experience.
