Republicans in South Carolina are fuming that President Donald Trump’s heavy hand in the state’s Senate race has put a once-safe seat in danger, with Election Day just five days away.
Trump heads back to South Carolina on Thursday to rally for Sen. Darline Graham, his second visit in two weeks and his third in three months, and some in Republicans told MS NOW the trips should never have been needed.
“It’s a f—ing train wreck,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the network. “It’s a mess.”
Trump urged Gov. H.R. McMaster to appoint Graham to finish the term of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly in July, and he then pressed her to run for the full six-year term and endorsed her once she did. Several Republicans now say that push is backfiring.
“He’s trying to force-feed the candidate for her victory with the people in South Carolina,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost to Graham in the August primary.
Mace, who finished a distant fifth place in the GOP gubernatorial primary in June, did not mince words. “This was shoved down their throat,” she said, “and they don’t like it.” She added that voters “don’t believe in nepotism.”
A South Carolina GOP official who has seen private polling called the time and money the party is pouring into the state “wild.”
“The president’s taken a lot of time to go to a lot of different states, including ours,” the official said, “and a lot of that is arguably avoidable, or was avoidable.”
A New York Times/Siena poll released Wednesday showed Graham tied with Democrat Annie Andrews at 48 percent. Only 80 percent of Republicans back Graham, compared with the 97 percent of Democrats who support Andrews, and that was after Trump had already rallied twice in the state.
Graham has also been dogged by doubts about her qualifications since she admitted in an August debate that she was “not that informed on national security.” The GOP official said that performance “hurt her tremendously.”
Norman says he’ll honor a unity pledge and vote for the Republican candidate. Asked three times who he’s voting for, though, he wouldn’t say Graham’s name. He also questioned what she stands for.
“What position does she have other than she likes Donald Trump?” he asked.
South Carolina hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. Norman pointed to the president’s travel as proof that the streak is in jeopardy.
“Do you think he’d be coming down here for the second time to South Carolina if she wasn’t?” he asked. “No.”
The post ‘Wild’: Republicans fume that Trump’s meddling put once-safe Senate seat at risk appeared first on Raw Story.
