Trump tries to push Sen. Darline Graham across the finish line over some Republicans’ objections
By Patrick Svitek, Dianne Gallagher, CNN
(CNN) — Fresh off the losses of three candidates he endorsed in Republican primaries, President Donald Trump faces a much higher-profile test of his political power in South Carolina.
Trump is set to hold a rally Friday night in Myrtle Beach with Sen. Darline Graham, whom he endorsed for her late brother’s Senate seat and whose campaign was shaken by a recent debate when she couldn’t answer a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea because she was “not that informed about national security.”
Both Trump and Graham are at a crucial moment. Some stalwart supporters of the president are openly rejecting his pick in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff, despite a strong effort by the White House that included Trump calling old rivals to push them to endorse her.
A defeat in South Carolina would further call into question the second-term president’s ability to keep his party ranks in line.
“The entire world is laughing at South Carolina right now and laughing at Darline Graham Nordone,” said former state Rep. Adam Morgan, who is supporting her opponent Rep. Ralph Norman. He used the full name for Graham that some of her critics like to invoke to distinguish her from Sen. Lindsey Graham. Morgan added that Darline Graham’s debate flub had to be a “serious gut check” for Trump and his political team.
As of Thursday, Trump was showing no signs of backing away from his exclusive support for Darline Graham or making a double endorsement like he did in the South Carolina governor’s runoff after his first pick didn’t win the primary.
“President Trump’s endorsement is the most powerful endorsement in the history of American politics,” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said in a statement. “Anyone claiming otherwise is a complete and utter fool.”
How the White House ramped up its backing of Graham
Trump moved quickly to consolidate GOP support behind Graham after she finished first in the August 11 primary but did not get enough of the vote to avoid a runoff. Trump called at least two of her opponents that night – Rep. Russell Fry and former Gov. Mark Sanford – and asked them to endorse her, according to sources familiar with the calls.
The results were mixed.
Fry was not ready to immediately back Graham and waited until three days later, after at least one other call from Trump, to do so. They talked about Trump possibly coming to South Carolina to stump for Graham in the runoff, and Fry suggested a place in his district, the Myrtle Beach area, as a good location.
Sanford, who also ran a long-shot campaign against Trump in the 2020 presidential primary, remains neutral in the runoff, while one of his sons, Landon Sanford, backed Norman. A representative for Mark Sanford did not respond to a request for comment.
Businessman Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the June primary, told CNN he had not spoken to Trump. He endorsed Norman within hours after losing the primary.
“South Carolinians do not want ‘Queen Darline’ appointed as their senator by D.C. special interests and Democrat PACs,” Lynch said in a statement to CNN.
Graham’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story. But she shrugged off the debate flub while speaking with reporters afterward, saying South Carolinians are “worried about their pocketbooks more than they’re worried about the South China Sea.”
During a campaign event Wednesday in Florence, an audience member asked if she had any concerns about “credibility” in the Senate in light of the debate answer.
“Is national security important? Absolutely,” she said. “Can I learn? I’m smart. Yes, I’ll learn. I’ll become informed. Everybody has a first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job? Yes, he has.”
Yet even some Graham supporters cringed at the moment, which came when a moderator, journalist Greta Van Susteren, asked Graham if Taiwan and the South China Sea were “national security issues for the United States.” Struggling to answer, Graham voiced general support for the military and added national security is “not my thing.”
A Republican lawmaker who endorsed Graham after she made the runoff called her debate performance “eyebrow-raising” and said it “didn’t inspire confidence.”
“I’m a little surprised she didn’t have a better pivot than ‘I don’t know about that’. She won’t make that mistake again, that’s for sure. I would think she’ll be able to learn more during the rest of this term,” the lawmaker said. “She had decent answers about domestic issues.”
A GOP source told CNN Graham’s team was downplaying the gaffe to donors and Republicans who’d endorsed her, echoing the candidate and telling them that “people struggling with affordability aren’t concerned about the South China Sea.”
Dorchester County GOP Chairman CJ Westfall, a Graham critic, noted his group texts with state Republicans started lighting up when Graham gave that answer.
“The people who were watching that are the hardcore Republicans,” said Westfall. “And a special runoff? Those voters are the most hardcore of the hardcore.”
Critics of Graham are piling on
The debate moment appeared to be a turning point for Republicans who had previously been holding back on airing reservations about her candidacy.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a longtime Norman ally who ran against Trump in 2024, said on X that Lindsey Graham was “well informed” about national security and it is “not something you inherit.” Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation and a strong Trump ally, called Darline Graham’s answer “embarrassing and inexcusable.”
“Can we just stop this ridiculous experiment in nepotism now???” former Trump adviser Steve Cortes wrote on X.
Graham’s critics also noted that she said during the debate that South Carolina has a population of 50 million people when it is actually about a tenth of that size. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Norman supporter, highlighted Graham’s error on social media and said, “I can’t even right now with this Senate race.”
Beyond the national security question, the debate signaled that the race had entered a new, more contentious phase. Graham seized several opportunities to attack Norman, including in a closing statement that was particularly animated.
“Fact is, I’ve done more in 20 days than you have done in 20 years,” Graham told Norman, a five-term congressman.
Norman largely shrugged off her jabs as part of “silly season,” but his allies are sharpening their rhetoric against her. A pro-Norman super PAC, Palmetto First PAC, is running a TV ad that says Graham “inherited” the seat and asks, “What if Darline Graham had any other last name?”
The cast of outside groups backing Graham has only grown in the runoff. The latest entrants include two super PACs aligned with artificial intelligence industry and a third group focused on clean energy, Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC, that recently helped unseat Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, in his primary.
Norman has sought to make up for the overwhelming outside funding backing Graham by self-funding his campaign. He loaned his campaign $1.3 million on Monday, according to a campaign finance filing, adding to the $400,000 he put into his campaign last week.
As for endorsements, Fry is not the only big name in South Carolina politics that has coalesced behind Graham since the primary. She has also picked up endorsements from Sen. Tim Scott and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette. Evette was Trump’s initial choice in the primary for governor but lost to Attorney General Alan Wilson in the runoff.
Graham has also garnered endorsements from some anti-abortion groups as intra-party critics question have highlighted her friendship with — and two past small political donations to – a former GOP state lawmaker who fought the state’s near-total abortion ban. One of the organizations, the Susan B. Anthony List, followed Trump’s lead and backed Graham even though Norman has an “A+” rating on its legislative scorecard.
“I have gotten to know Darline Graham and I am confident she is 100% committed to advocating for unborn children and their mothers in the U.S. Senate,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement.
Dannenfelser visited South Carolina on Thursday to campaign with Graham, as did the second highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, Majority Whip John Barrasso.
Norman has gained some interesting, if lower-profile, endorsements in the runoff. Among them is the Republican Party in Lexington County, Graham’s home county and where she got the most votes in the primary.
Mark Weber, the chairman of the Lexington County GOP, said he moved to South Carolina from California in 1989 and has come to appreciate that the state “truly believes in state’s rights and local control.”
“While I am a Trump support[er] and Lexington and SC is Trump Country,” Weber said in a text message, “SC voters don’t want anyone to twist our arms or tell us how to vote.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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