Trump Lays It on the Line for Darline Graham Ahead of South Carolina Runoff
New York Times · LC · trust 30/100
The president rallied for the sister of Lindsey Graham in her South Carolina Senate run and pressured allies to endorse her. A super PAC run by his advisers has spent nearly $800,000 on her campaign. Will it be enough?
Listen · 7:05 min Share full article 0 President Trump rallied for Senator Darline Graham of South Carolina in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Friday, part of a full-court press to secure her victory in a special runoff primary Tuesday to replace her late brother. Credit... Alex Kent/The New York Times By Emily Davies Patricia Mazzei and Michael Gold
In the weeks leading up to South Carolina’s primary election runoff for Senate on Tuesday, Mr. Trump traveled to Myrtle Beach to rally supporters and personally called high-level state officials to compel them to endorse Ms. Graham. A super PAC run by his advisers, MAGA Inc., notoriously wary to spend on races this cycle, invested more than $800,000 on phone calls on her behalf, according to campaign finance filings released on Monday, nearly a third of the total the committee has spent this year.
On the line: The president’s credibility in a state that twice in the last six months has rejected his preferences. In June, voters discarded his first choice for governor, prompting him to make a second endorsement in the final stretch. And earlier this year, the Republican-held State Senate declined to take up a new congressional map backed by Mr. Trump and other national Republicans that would have eliminated South Carolina’s lone majority Black district, which is held by a Democrat.
With several high-profile losses in other states, Mr. Trump’s national endorsement track record is at stake, too. Because he touted Ms. Graham more enthusiastically than most other candidates, a loss for her would amount to a huge loss for him.
“What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot,” Mr. Trump said at the rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday. “Just come and vote. It’s so important.”
Ms. Graham is facing Representative Ralph Norman, a hard-line conservative who has occasionally irked the president, in the race to serve a full, six-year term following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham in July. The winner in the solidly Republican state will compete in November against Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee.
A longtime administrator of disability services, Ms. Graham had never held public office until the state’s governor appointed her to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term in the Senate. Weeks later, on Aug. 11, she finished first in a crowded special primary election, boosted by Mr. Trump’s endorsement and a pitch to voters that she would carry on the most popular parts of her brother’s tenure. That included pledges to keep his staff, who are well-liked for their constituent services, and to follow the wishes of the president. But in the final week of a whirlwind election the political winds have shifted against her.
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