South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on July 13 appointed the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham’s younger sister to complete his term, hours after President Donald Trump publicly urged him to choose her. Darline Graham Nordone will serve in the Senate until Graham’s term expires in January, following his unexpected death at the weekend at the age of 71. |
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Shortly after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) passed away, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to fulfill the rest of her brother’s term. Days later, she announced that she was running for that seat, showing that she was not going to simply be a placeholder while the GOP primary played out, but was instead going to use the benefits of being an incumbent to win six years in the seat despite having no background in elected office.
NBC News reporter Ryan Nobles brought this up at an event yesterday in Lexington, South Carolina, noting that one of voters’ main concerns about her is that she is being handed a Senate seat because of who her brother is. A special primary election was held yesterday for the Senate seat.
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But Graham Nordone, who will move on to a runoff in the primary race, denied the claim.
“I don’t see it that way,” she said. “I’m not being handed this seat. I realize that I have to earn voters, so I’m working really hard to do that. As I said, I want to spend the next two weeks getting out to as many places as I can.”
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“Lindsey was amazing. I will never fill his shoes. No one can ever fill his shoes. And I don’t just expect it to be handed to me.”
On X, a video of her answering that question was hit with a short community note, “She is literally being handed this seat,” which was accompanied by a link to how the governor appointed her to the seat.
People were equally skeptical in comments and quotes.
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