Darline Graham weighs run for late brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat
CBS News says the newly appointed South Carolina senator is in serious talks about entering the Aug. 11 special Republican primary.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
2 min read
Darline Graham has been a U.S. senator for only days, and she is already looking at whether to fight for the seat herself.
The South Carolina Republican, appointed after the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, is in serious discussions about running in the Aug. 11 special Republican primary, CBS News reported, citing two people familiar with her plans.
According to CBS News, Graham signaled during a White House meeting Thursday that she is considering a campaign. Semafor first reported that she was weighing a Senate run.
Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham on Monday to serve the rest of Lindsey Graham’s current term, which ends in January, CBS News reported. She was sworn in Tuesday, becoming the first woman to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
A sudden rise after Lindsey Graham’s death
Lindsey Graham died suddenly last weekend after what CBS News described as a brief illness. His death rattled the Senate after more than two decades in office.
He had served in the chamber since 2003 and, according to CBS News, had been widely expected to win a fifth term in November.
Darline Graham, 62, arrived in the Senate without a record of holding elected office. CBS News reported that her career has been in disability services, and that she most recently served as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind.
On Monday, Graham said she believed she could handle the job with help from her brother’s staff, according to CBS News.
Republican reaction
Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina’s other senator, did not shut down the idea when CBS News asked him Wednesday about a possible Darline Graham run.
Scott, who also chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said: “Darline has so far been off to a remarkable start. Why not her?”
Graham has not made a formal campaign announcement in the reporting cited by CBS News. For now, the new senator is weighing whether to move from temporary appointee to candidate in a race that was upended by her brother’s death.
If she enters the Aug. 11 special Republican primary, she would do so as a newcomer to elected politics but with the sitting senator’s title and a well-known last name in South Carolina Republican circles, according to the background reported by CBS News.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.