Donald Trump is urging South Carolina officials to name the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s sister to the Senate seat left vacant by his unexpected death.
“I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,” the President said in a social media post.
“This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!” he added.
Darline Graham Nordone, Graham’s younger sister, has not previously held elected office or served in a public office role.
Graham publicly praised his sister in 2015, saying, “If she took a role on, she would be a great representative of our country. I can’t think of a better person to represent our country in an event than my sister.”
South Carolina’s other senator, Tim Scott, signaled that Nordone may be receptive to the possibility. “After speaking with Darline, there is no one better who understands Lindsey’s love for family, our state, and our country,” Scott wrote on X.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune also appeared supportive of the idea, telling CNN that appointing Darline to the seat formerly held by her brother “makes a lot of sense.”
In the hours after Graham’s death, Republicans quickly began maneuvering as potential contenders emerged for the vacant Senate seat.
Donald Trump with Senator Lindsey Graham at a South Carolina campaign event in 2023
Graham with his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, center, with whom he was incredibly close
The President has recommended Nordone to serve as interim South Carolina senator after her brother’s death on Saturday
South Carolina Governor McMaster is expected to speak Monday afternoon about the late senator and the vacancy in Congress left by his death.
McMaster is allowed to appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends on January 3, 2027. The Governor may decide to appoint a ‘caretaker’ to the role who will not run for the seat in the midterms later this year.
It is unclear whether Nordone’s appointment would be a ‘caretaker’ selection or if she would formally announce a run for his seat in a special primary election.
Graham’s death kicks off a one-week registration period for a special primary election so that a new candidate can swiftly fill the vacancy, according to South Carolina law.
Registration is slated to begin July 21, and the election would be held two Tuesdays later, on August 11.
If there is a runoff for the special primary election, it would be held on August 25.
The winner of the special primary election would go on to face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews in the November race.
Already there is speculation about which South Carolina politicians may hop into the special primary election.
Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, Fox News host and former Congressman Trey Gowdy, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Congressman Ralph Norman and more have been mentioned as possible candidates.
Graham and Trump were known to golf together at the President’s resorts
Graham was on Air Force One with Trump a day after the US military raid that captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Graham cheered on the President’s use of force
Retiring Congresswoman Nancy Mace posted on social media hours after Graham’s death that she was being pulled back into politics, stirring belief that she will jump into the special election to replace the late senator
‘Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in…,’ Mace, who is retiring from Congress at the end of her term, wrote on social media on Sunday morning after the news of Graham’s death broke.
The post stirred belief that she will run for the open Senate seat.
It also provoked controversy in the GOP after Republicans accused Mace of callously floating a potential Senate bid just hours after Graham’s death was announced.
A spokesman for her campaign told the Daily Mail that ‘Lindsey Graham was a mentor to Nancy Mace, and one of the funniest, quickest people she ever served alongside. Anyone who knew him knew he loved a good line, and told more of them than anybody in Washington.’
Speaking with CBS News on Monday, Evette declined to comment on whether she is interested in running for the Senate seat.
‘Today is celebrating what a great life the senator has given to this nation,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Norman is expected to seek the vacated Senate seat, sources familiar with his thinking told FITSNews.
A source told the outlet that Norman is ‘strongly considering’ a bid for the seat, though he didn’t want to say anything publicly right after Graham’s death.
South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette declined to comment on whether she will run for Graham’s recently vacated Senate seat during a Monday interview
Sources close to South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman told FITSNews that he is ‘strongly considering’ a bid for the Senate seat
Lindsey and Nordone were incredibly close, and after the siblings’ parents died 15 months apart in the 1970s, the Senator, then 21, legally adopted his teenage sister and helped raise her.
The senator never married or had children but noted that he did have a family, namely his younger sister.
The siblings were raised in Central, South Carolina, near Clemson University. Their parents operated a bar and pool hall. The young Grahams lived in a room in the back of the establishment.
‘He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one,’ Nordone told the New York Times in 2015.
The senator kept close tabs on his younger sister as the two grew up without their parents.
The Republican’s law school friends told NPR that Graham would visit his sister on weekends and would inquire about whether she was keeping curfew and who she was spending time with.
After joining the Air Force as a military lawyer, he adopted Nordone, ensuring that if anything happened to him, his benefits would flow to her.
