Graham, and Trump, Triumph: Six Takeaways From South Carolina’s Senate Runoff
New York Times · LC · trust 54/100
President Trump went all in for Senator Darline Graham in a primary runoff on Tuesday. It worked, preserving his undefeated streak in Republican Senate primaries this year.
Share full article Senator Darline Graham’s victory on Tuesday showed President Trump’s continued ability to move Republican primary voters, especially when he goes all in on a race. Credit... Sean Rayford for The New York Times By Patricia Mazzei
Ms. Graham defeated Representative Ralph Norman, a five-term congressman, in deeply red South Carolina after Mr. Trump did more to support her than he had for any other Republican candidate this year — out of apparent affection for her late brother, Lindsey Graham, who died last month .
Her win showed the president’s continued ability to move Republican primary voters, especially when he goes all in on a race. His chosen candidates won a series of key primaries in the spring, but a few of his picks have more recently lost, putting the power of his endorsement in question. That he could lift Ms. Graham, who is poised to win a six-year Senate term after being virtually unknown six weeks ago, may have settled that question, for now.
Trump’s pick also prevailed in Oklahoma’s Republican primary for governor, where Mike Mazzei, a former state lawmaker, defeated Gentner Drummond, the state’s attorney general. Mr. Mazzei was ahead by less than half of a percentage point when The Associated Press called the race.
Mr. Trump won South Carolina by more than 18 percentage points in 2024. But twice in the past six months, candidates he endorsed have fallen in the state.
Ms. Graham looked like she could become one of only a handful of Trump-backed Senate candidates to lose their primaries nationwide since 2017. She initially struggled to introduce herself to voters in the extraordinarily short campaign and flubbed a debate answer about national security.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Read the original at New York Times →
Open in TruthVane →