Darline Graham Wins South Carolina Senate Primary, Powered by Trump's Full Political Machine

Darline Graham, a 62-year-old former disability services administrator with no prior political experience, won the South Carolina Republican Senate primary runoff on August 25, 2026 — roughly six weeks after her brother, longtime Senator Lindsey Graham, died in July. She defeated Representative Ralph Norman, a five-term congressman and vice chair of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, by a final margin of 52% to 48%, with roughly 193,000 votes to Norman's 175,000.

The victory was widely seen as a direct product of Trump's aggressive intervention. The president hosted a rally for Graham in Myrtle Beach, directed his super PAC to spend heavily on her behalf — Norman noted some $8 million was spent against him — and pressured fellow Republicans to endorse her. Trump's Senate primary endorsement record now remains undefeated when he commits fully to a candidate. Norman, conceding without a prepared speech, said he couldn't understand why Trump chose to intervene but acknowledged the president had the right to do so. Graham thanked Trump from the stage and declared South Carolina 'truly Trump country.'

Graham now advances to a general election against Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee, whom Graham immediately attacked as the most radical liberal ever nominated for statewide office by South Carolina Democrats, singling out Andrews' positions on abortion and gender. The general election contest is expected to heavily favor Graham in the deeply red state.

Elsewhere on election night, the Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial primary runoff between Trump-endorsed Mike Mazzei, a financial planning firm executive and former state budget secretary, and Attorney General Gentner Drummond remained razor-thin — fewer than 3,000 votes apart with 90% reporting. In the Oklahoma Senate Democratic primary, progressive nurse N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas defeated moderate lawyer Jim Priest to advance to a general election against Representative Kevin Hern for the seat formerly held by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, though she faces long odds in a state Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024. And in Georgia, Everton Blair Jr., former Gwinnett County School Board chair, won the special runoff for the late Representative David Scott's seat — a result that, combined with California's recent special election, trims Republicans' House majority to just four seats.