South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, said on Monday that it was his “duty” and “honor” to ask Darline Graham Nordone to serve out the remainder of the Senate term of her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
Speaking during a press conference at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, the governor called Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel, an “irresistible,” “irreplaceable” and “extraordinary” man.
“Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed,” McMaster said. “It’s my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham, to finish his work for him now.” Hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he thought Graham’s sister was the right person for the role.
“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him,” she said. “It is such a privilege to get to finish some of his important work, and I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States.”
Experts told JNS that whoever fills the role in the long term to succeed Graham, who died on July 11, will likely be pro-Israel but probably won’t focus on Israel as much as the late senator did. A special primary is scheduled for Aug. 11.
Graham’s successor will likely be someone who leans “equally as much in a pro-Israel direction,” Christopher A. Cooper, Robert Lee Madison distinguished professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., and director of its Haire Institute for Public Policy, told JNS.
“The question is whether they make that as much of a key plank of their whole presentation of self as Lindsey Graham did,” the professor said. “You can have a series of issues you really care about. Everybody does. But the real test is which ones you emphasize.”
“I have a feeling that we’re going to have a bunch of people who feel similarly about Israel, but that may be the sixth or seventh most important issue to them, where it was number one with a bullet for Lindsey Graham,” Cooper told JNS.
Graham represented an “old-school approach to Congress, which is that you specialize, that you engage in one area more than the others and become an expert in that area,” according to Cooper.
“For Lindsey Graham, there’s no question that that area was foreign policy,” he told JNS. “Whoever ends up getting this seat, they’re not going to have as much foreign policy experience as Lindsey Graham.”
Scott Huffmon, professor of political science at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and director of its Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, told JNS that “it would be tough to be as much of a foreign policy hawk as Lindsey Graham was.”
“During Lindsey Graham’s entire career, that was one of his absolute signatures on which he never wavered,” he said. “He was always a hawk. He was always a friend of Israel, very much so.”
“Whoever replaces him is definitely going to be pro-Israel, because they have to be pro-Trump or they’re not going to be elected to be senator from South Carolina,” Huffmon told JNS.
It would be hard for any candidate to devote as much attention to Israel and the Middle East as Graham did, nor is the new senator likely to be as influential as Graham, who served on the Senate Armed Services and Budget Committees, according to Huffmon.
“Those were a huge deal and gave him a platform to get involved in these areas of passion for him,” he told JNS.
‘Big field’
The filing period for candidates to run in the special primary election for Graham’s seat is scheduled to begin on July 21 and close on July 28. If a candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, that person wins outright. If no candidate passes that threshold, the primary goes to a runoff on Aug. 25.
Cooper and Huffmon think the governor’s announcement about Graham’s sister is unlikely to affect the race much, since she will probably serve only the remainder of the term.
“I could only see it becoming relevant if a candidate were crass enough to pressure her for an endorsement,” Huffmon told JNS.
Cooper expects that there will be a “pretty big field” of candidates looking to replace Graham, and he thinks there will likely be a runoff.
Huffmon thinks that there is a “better than average chance” of a runoff if the field is crowded. South Carolina has an open primary system, but it’s going to be “a very quick affair,” he told JNS. “Low-information people aren’t going to know a lot about the candidates, except the ones who already ran.”
Possible candidates could include McMaster, Republican lieutenant governor of South Carolina Pamela Evette, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Henry McMaster, Jr., the governor’s son, according to Cooper.
Huffmon told JNS that Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) is “absolutely” a possible candidate. Norman has “statewide name recognition,” though he finished third in the state’s gubernatorial primary in June, and Mace has “great name recognition,” but that doesn’t necessarily translate to votes, he said.
It remains to be seen if Evette will run. Trump endorsed her in the gubernatorial race but later endorsed both her and her opponent, Alan Wilson, state attorney general and current Republican gubernatorial nominee, in the runoff, according to Huffmon.
Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and Democratic nominee for the Senate seat, is unlikely to win the general election, according to Cooper. Graham had been the “focus of her campaign,” he said.
“She’s going to have to come up with a new strategy, new rhetoric, a new focus of her campaign while running in one of the reddest states in the country,” he told JNS.
Huffmon told JNS that her general election campaign “just became a little harder.”
“She has to start from scratch against a whole unknown candidate,” he said. “In an R-plus-10 state, starting from scratch this late just is a tough ask.”
