Establishment Republicans Rally Around Insider Darline Graham Ahead of South Carolina Runoff
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Sen. Tim Scott, representing the entrenched Republican establishment, praised Darline Graham—a career bureaucrat with little experience on national issues—as she seeks to maintain GOP control of South Carolina's Senate seat.
On NBC News' 'Meet the Press,' Sen. Tim Scott, a key figure in the Republican establishment, lauded Darline Graham as 'the real deal,' calling her 'highly qualified' and 'incredibly competent.' These endorsements come just two days before the August 25 runoff for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina, a position the GOP is desperate to keep within its ranks. Scott expressed his desire for Graham to join him in the Senate, further consolidating conservative power in the state.
Graham, 62, has spent her entire career within state government bureaucracy, most recently serving as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind since 2019. Despite never having run for elected office and openly admitting during an August 18 debate that she has limited knowledge of national security issues, Graham continues to receive unwavering support from party elites. She stated she supports the military but is not a 'polished politician,' highlighting the lack of substantive expertise often overlooked by the GOP.
President Donald Trump, ever eager to install loyalists, rushed to defend Graham's lack of experience, framing her honesty as a virtue. Trump revealed he personally recruited her to run for the seat after Governor Henry McMaster, another Republican insider, appointed her to fill the remainder of her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham's term. Lindsey Graham, a longtime pillar of Republican orthodoxy, had won the primary in June before his death on July 11.
'I asked her to do this,' Trump boasted at an August 21 rally, urging supporters to back Graham and ensure the Senate seat remains firmly in the hands of the Republican establishment.