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{"id":26906,"date":"2026-08-24T21:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-maga-inc-makes-last-minute-buy-for-darline-graham-in-south-carolina-runoff\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T21:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:02:36","slug":"trumps-maga-inc-makes-last-minute-buy-for-darline-graham-in-south-carolina-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-maga-inc-makes-last-minute-buy-for-darline-graham-in-south-carolina-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s MAGA Inc. makes last-minute buy for Darline Graham in South Carolina runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>President Donald Trump is using a bit of his mostly untapped $400 million MAGA Inc. warchest to boost Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina \u2014 the first significant expenditure his team has made this year for one of his chosen candidates, according to campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n<p>The super PAC has funneled more than $827,000 on voter phone calls and text messages for Graham ahead of her tough GOP runoff battle with Rep. Ralph Norman on Tuesday, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/forms\/C00892471\/2009583\/se\" target=\"_blank\">a Federal Election Commission report<\/a> made public on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s yet another sign that Trump is focusing his efforts on propelling Graham \u2014 a political newcomer \u2014 to victory, after holding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/21\/ballot-trump-darline-graham-01046646\" target=\"_blank\">a rare in-person political rally with her<\/a> on Friday. And it\u2019s a notable spend given MAGA Inc.\u2019s ongoing absence from other battleground races this cycle, even as Republicans have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/06\/maga-donors-trump-spending-midterms-00985987\" target=\"_blank\">pushing the president<\/a> and his team to spend heavily this fall to help counter Democrats\u2019 massive fundraising advantage.<\/p>\n<p>As of last week, the super PAC had reported over $403 million in fundraising.<\/p>\n<p>The money for Graham is just the second time MAGA Inc. has spent on a race this year. The group in March shelled out nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/fecimg\/?202603119837936304\" target=\"_blank\">$18,000<\/a> for now-Rep. Clay Fuller (R-Ga.), who was running in the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.<\/p>\n<p>And in late 2025, MAGA Inc. <a href=\"https:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/forms\/C00892471\/1927215\/se\" target=\"_blank\">threw roughly $1.7 million into phone calls<\/a> for Tennessee Republican Matt Van Epps, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/12\/02\/tennessee-aftyn-behn-matt-van-epps-democrats-00674118\" target=\"_blank\">who won the special election<\/a> to replace retired Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.).<\/p>\n<p>Spokespeople for MAGA Inc. and the White House did immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Should Graham become the Republican nominee in South Carolina on Tuesday, it will be in large part thanks to Trump, who expended serious political and financial capital to help her win. Her victory would also help reaffirm Trump\u2019s influence in Republican primaries after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/15\/trump-endorsement-losses-01038555\" target=\"_blank\">a string of losses<\/a> for his preferred candidates in states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa.<\/p>\n<p><i>Jessica Piper contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump is using a bit of his mostly untapped $400 million MAGA Inc. warchest to boost Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina \u2014 the first significant expenditure his team has made this year for one of his chosen candidates, according to campaign finance reports. The super PAC has funneled more than $827,000 on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}