COLUMBIA, S.C. — The contest to succeed Lindsey Graham, complete with a crowded field of Republicans, offers a rare dynamic for a red-state primary in the age of President Donald Trump: There’s no clear Trump-aligned candidate.
Trump is trying to rally his supporters behind Graham’s sister, Sen. Darline Graham, a candidate who many conservative activists say doesn’t have a history of being active in his movement.
And each of the main contenders have found themselves out of step with the president at some point — an awkward dilemma that has made his influence in Tuesday’s election less firm than usual. Adding to the uncertainty: Trump’s endorsement failed here just two months ago, in the June primary for governor, in which he had to issue a last-minute dual endorsement to avoid an embarrassing loss.
The two candidates who pledge the most loyalty to Trump have personal voting records that complicate their pro-Trump credentials. Darline Graham, who was sworn in last month to finish the remaining months of her brother’s term, didn’t vote in his 2024 presidential primary or the 2016 general election, according to state voting records reviewed by The Washington Post.
The candidate Trump almost endorsed, Rep. Russell Fry, also didn’t cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential primary, state records show, although Fry publicly backed Trump ahead of the voting. In the current race, Fry was undeterred by Trump’s endorsement of Graham, choosing to proceed with his own campaign. A spokesperson for Fry said he voted in the February 2024 presidential primary, but declined to provide proof.
Another top contender in the race, Rep. Ralph Norman, endorsed Trump’s primary rival Nikki Haley in 2024, the only House member to do so. A fourth candidate, former governor Mark Sanford, was a Trump critic during his final years in Congress, ran against Trump for president in 2020 and disagrees with the president on the Iran war and more.
Tuesday’s primary is all but certain to result in a runoff, with none of the candidates likely to be obtain 50% of the vote. Darline Graham has an advantage in most polls, but not large enough to avoid a runoff.
In recent days, a super PAC supporting Graham has attacked both Fry and Sanford, a sign of the tight margins in the abbreviated primary campaign. Veteran Republican operatives and conservative activists in the state say the unusual nature of the special election — being held exactly a month after Lindsey Graham unexpectedly died — means any of the four top contenders could make the runoff, which would be held Aug. 25.
In events over the last several days, each has tried to define their conservative platform. Overall, the candidates have insisted that their party’s voters are looking for more than just Trump’s input.
On Thursday, holding a pair of squealing pigs named “Debt” and “Deficit” outside the South Carolina State House, Sanford re-created a 2004 news conference he held as governor long before Trump was on the political stage. Sanford once again railed against bloated government spending — and, when asked, conceded to reporters that spending had only gone up on Trump’s watch.
The pigs he previously brought to the Capitol — named “Pork” and “Barrel”— “have gone to porky heaven,” Sanford said, as Debt emptied his bowels while cradled in the former governor’s arms. Twenty-two years later, Sanford said, the Republican-controlled federal government is still printing money it doesn’t have, and “people are feeling it in a way that they have never felt it before.”
Norman, in an interview Wednesday, said whoever is elected to a six-year term in the Senate “will be there long after Trump’s gone” from Washington.
He has praised Trump’s policies and will fight to implement them, Norman said.
But “he’s got a year or two years.”
Fry, who was backed by Trump when he first ran for his Myrtle Beach-area congressional seat in 2022, said “his endorsement’s the gold standard. He’s a good friend, and I’ve enjoyed working with him.”
“Anyone in this race would love to have the endorsement, but people also have to run their own race, too,” Fry said.
The candidates, to be sure, have tied themselves closely to Trump when it comes to his current fixation, abolishing the Senate’s filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, which would impose new federal rules on elections. Except for Sanford, they all back most of Trump’s policy positions, as well.
Trump is scheduled to hold a tele-rally Monday night to support Graham. A senior White House official said last week that there had been no discussions of Trump issuing a dual endorsement in the runoff, as he did in the governor’s race when his chosen candidate, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, fell behind in polling. Trump ultimately made a second endorsement — of state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who went on to defeat Evette in the runoff. The White House official said it’s also unclear whether Trump would travel to South Carolina to campaign for Graham in a runoff election.
State party officials expect Tuesday’s turnout to be particularly low, drawing only the most die-hard GOP activists — many of whom have expressed skepticism about Graham’s conservative bona fides.
Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, told a crowd of conservatives at the Charleston Rifle Club on Thursday night that in this election, “personal endorsements are going to matter more than anything else.”
“Your personal endorsement, who you are for,” McKissick explained, encouraging those gathered for the candidate forum to take to social media and call their friends to inform them about which candidate they support.
Trump had been prepared to endorse Fry in the special Senate election, according to people with knowledge of the situation, before Graham expressed interest in running for a full term. Asked whether he has spoken to Trump since the primary campaign was underway, Fry said he has the president’s cellphone number and “can call him anytime.” Pressed on whether he has done so during the whirlwind primary, Fry said: “Not yet.”
Norman, too, last spoke with Trump at the outset of the race.
When Norman called Trump last month to ask for his endorsement, the president quickly got to the point.
“Didn’t you endorse Nikki?” Trump asked. Norman replied yes, but said he had called Trump at the time to tell him beforehand.
“I said, ‘Look, Mr. President. Lindsey ran against you. He said awful things. I never did that, and I support your policy.”
“‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I know you’re a good guy,’” Norman recalled the president telling him.
If Norman were to advance to the runoff, he said he’s unsure if Trump would issue a dual endorsement again. “I think people see it for what it is,” Norman said. “Double endorsement, really, is problematic to me.” But, he added, “I’d love to have it at any time.”
Lindsey Graham, during his 2016 bid for president, called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” and a “con man” who would “destroy the party for decades to come.” Trump dealt it back to Graham, but the two made up after Trump’s election. Graham eventually became one of Trump’s most valuable allies in the Senate, despite not seeing eye to eye with him on every issue.
Trump endorsed and helped Graham raise millions of dollars ahead of his June primary election. Still, Graham was reviled by some of Trump’s most animated MAGA supporters, particularly over his support for foreign aid and intervention.
Sanford is the most out of step with Trump of the major candidates in the race and has had to overcome his own past indiscretions. The then-governor gained national attention in 2009 after he disappeared from the state for a week, before it was revealed that he, then married, had traveled to Argentina to visit his mistress. He told staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
In interviews with Republican voters last week, however, only a couple brought up the scandal unprompted. Sanford told reporters, when asked, that he had gained “humility” and “empathy” from the experience.
Last year, Sanford was accused by a D.C.-based political journalist of having a sexual relationship with the man’s then-girlfriend, another political journalist, while she reported on his 2020 presidential campaign. Sanford told The Post the allegation was false, but declined to elaborate or comment on it otherwise.
Asked whether his focus on fiscal responsibility was out of step with Republican priorities under Trump, Sanford, in an interview, likened himself to Chris Martin, the lead singer from the British rock band Coldplay. The band got its start playing in small pubs before they became a global sensation, he noted.
“There are certain songs you’ve just got to sing in life, and there’ll be an audience or there won’t be an audience. But if that song is strong enough inside you, you just got to sing,” Sanford said, adding that fiscal responsibility “is a song I’ve sang for a long time.”
Graham did not attend the forum in Charleston Thursday, citing Senate business in Washington. She has taken part in fewer campaign events in the state than her competitors. She attended a Saturday forum also sponsored by the state GOP, arriving after working through the night in the Senate.
“What I’m hearing is, people are like, ‘The election’s on Tuesday, and I still don’t know who I’m voting for.’ I’ve heard that more than anything, because they’re so impressed with many of these candidates,” Wilson, the state’s attorney general and Republican nominee for governor, told The Post.
“While they love the president and they’re supportive of the president, they want a candidate who can stand on their own two feet.”
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