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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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South Carolina Senator Darline Graham has announced she is running for a full term to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat, entering the field of Republicans running in a special election in August. However, little is known about her political views.
Graham was sworn in to the Senate last week. She was appointed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term, which ends in January, following his sudden death earlier this month.
But she told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an interview that aired on Monday that she would run in the August 11 special election primary to select a new Republican nominee for Lindsey Graham’s seat, who had been seeking a fifth term.
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“I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes. Absolutely,” she told Hannity.
“I’ve made a decision,” she added. “I’m in.”
She already had the endorsement of President Donald Trump before she announced her decision to run. He wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday that there “would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey.”
Trump added that she “has my Complete and Total Endorsement in the Special Election for U.S. Senate in South Carolina — SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN. RUN, DARLINE, RUN!”
Republican Representatives Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, as well as businessman Mark Lynch, are also running in the special primary election on August 11. The winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.
Newsweek has contacted Graham’s office for further comment via an email sent outside regular business hours.
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A Different Focus
Lindsey Graham was a fierce foreign policy hawk who often advocated for U.S. military intervention abroad, including a decades-long campaign to confront Iran’s ruling regime.
But his sister is new to politics, so it’s not clear what her priorities will be in office.
In her interview with Hannity, she praised her brother’s legacy but indicated that her priorities would not be on the issues that defined his career.
Asked if she sees areas where she and her brother may differ, Graham said: “I used to see him on the talk shows. I would watch him, and I’d be like, ‘Lindsey, you’re just talking about national security all the time.’ And I understand that’s important, protecting our borders, national security, absolutely.
“I said, but you know, talk about also what matters to the average person, you know, the price of groceries, the price of gas, healthcare, insurance, those kinds of things. That’s what I’m worried about. So I think that’s important too.”
Darline Graham’s Career
While her brother represented South Carolina in the House and Senate for more than three decades, Graham has never before held public office.
She had served as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind since 2019, according to a press release from McMaster’s office announcing her appointment.
She has also worked as an optician and held positions at Clemson University, the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce and the South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.
And while she is new to politics, she was a constant presence throughout her brother’s political career. She was often by his side for the important moments in his career, appearing alongside him at events during his 2015 run for president and in some of his campaign ads.
Focus on Disability Advocacy
Graham spoke about her work leading the South Carolina Commission for the Blind in the interview, saying it was a “passion” of hers to help individuals who are blind.
“You have to have a servant's heart for a job like that. I think, and I do. It was very important work to me, and I worked very hard at it,” she said.
Graham’s former colleagues and advocates who have worked with her have described her as a dedicated civil servant who is not particularly political or interested in the spotlight.
Kimberly Tissot, president of Able South Carolina who has worked alongside Graham for more than a decade, told The 19th that Graham’s focus during her career has been on employment opportunities for people with disabilities. She said Graham had pushed for a law ending subminimum wage for people with disabilities and attended the bill signing after the state legislature passed it in 2022.
She’s “a leader, but she’s not the kind of leader to ever brag about what she’s done,” Tissot said. Tissot has also revealed Graham is dedicated to her family, and that she is “not her brother.”
Katrina Shealy, a former Republican state senator and a friend of Graham’s, also told the outlet that Graham never seemed “that political.” Graham’s only political donation since 1990 was $100 to Shealy’s reelection campaign in 2020, according to Open Secrets.
Backlash From Some GOP Figures
Graham’s bid for a full term has already sparked concern and backlash from some Republicans.
CJ Westfall, the chairman of the Dorchester County GOP, said on X that most Republicans in the county had supported McMaster’s decision to appoint her to fill her late brother’s Senate seat, but have expressed concerns about her bid for a full term since little is publicly known about her background or qualifications.
Westfall said those conversations, and the South Carolina Republican Party’s candidate qualification rules, have led him to formally request the party’s rules committee review her eligibility. Citing recent reports, he said that Graham may not meet recently adopted rules that require candidates to have voted in at least two of the last three statewide Republican primaries unless they are granted a waiver.
But he noted that the request was “not intended to hurt or harm” her. “This is about one principle only: the Rules adopted by the delegates of the South Carolina Republican Party should be applied consistently and fairly to every Republican candidate,” he wrote.
Others have been more firm in their criticism.
Former congressman Bob Good, who was ousted after Trump endorsed his primary challenger in 2024, called Trump’s endorsement of Graham “predictable.”
Trump “continues to fill the Swamp with the worst congressional creatures, including his predictable endorsement of Darline Graham,” Good wrote on X. “Are there worse criteria than 1) family name, and 2) pledged unconditional and unconstitutional allegiance and obedience to the president?”
Gregg Nunziata, the executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law and a conservative lawyer who formerly served in the Department of Justice, responded to Senator Tom Cotton’s endorsement of Graham, writing on X: “Genuine question: on what basis do we know that she will be 'a principled conservative leader and a strong advocate for SC families'?"
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Cristina Diciu.
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