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{"id":26914,"date":"2026-08-26T01:17:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/political-newcomer-darline-graham-wins-south-carolinas-gop-senate-runoff\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:17:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:17:42","slug":"political-newcomer-darline-graham-wins-south-carolinas-gop-senate-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/political-newcomer-darline-graham-wins-south-carolinas-gop-senate-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Political newcomer Darline Graham wins South Carolina\u2019s GOP Senate runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina\u2019s snap Senate GOP primary, a significant win for President Donald Trump after a string of his endorsed candidates stumbled in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/25\/trump-test-darline-graham-south-carolina-01048663\" target=\"_blank\">went to great lengths<\/a> to get her over the finish line: He encouraged her to get into the race with his early endorsement, reiterated that support as she fumbled on the debate stage, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/21\/trump-rally-south-carolina-darline-graham-01045166\" target=\"_blank\">rallied for her in Myrtle Beach<\/a> \u2014 a step that he hasn\u2019t taken for most of his preferred candidates this cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The support didn\u2019t stop there. MAGA Inc., Trump\u2019s behemoth super PAC, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/24\/trump-maga-inc-darline-graham-south-carolina-01048038\" target=\"_blank\">spent over $827,000<\/a> on phone calls and text messages for Graham, money that Republicans in competitive battlegrounds have been anxiously waiting for.<\/p>\n<p>Her victory proves that Trump\u2019s backing is still a decisive force in Republican politics when he chooses to give his candidate of choice unwavering and active support.<\/p>\n<p>Graham will replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, on the ballot in November as the Republican nominee. She is all but guaranteed election to a full Senate term in deep red South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s loyal backing proved crucial for Graham in the two-week runoff sprint, after a debate stage fumble <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/19\/darline-graham-taiwan-flub-south-carolina-senate-01042395\" target=\"_blank\">on foreign policy<\/a> led Norman and his allies to attack her for her political inexperience. The president\u2019s appearance alongside Graham at a rally in the final days of the race allowed her to close out the primary by reiterating her close ties to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Graham\u2019s win is a remarkable coup for a figure who was unknown to the public just a few weeks ago. She had no prior experience in elected office until she was appointed to the Senate by GOP Gov. Henry McMaster after her brother Lindsey died unexpectedly in July. Since 2019, she has led South Carolina\u2019s Commission for the Blind and had previously worked for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department.<\/p>\n<p>Norman, meanwhile, is a Freedom Caucus stalwart who\u2019s served nine years in Congress and clashed with Trump occasionally over spending \u2014 though he\u2019s largely backed the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, his experience didn\u2019t win over voters, and he also saw backlash from the solar industry, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/norman-looks-to-flip-the-script-against-solar-donors\/\" target=\"_blank\">spent $1 million<\/a> to help defeat him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina\u2019s snap Senate GOP primary, a significant win for President Donald Trump after a string of his endorsed candidates stumbled in recent weeks. The president went to great lengths to get her over the finish line: He encouraged her to get into the race with his [&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-26914","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\/26914","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=26914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}