Trump backs Sen. Darline Graham Nordone in primary to replace her late brother

President Donald Trump endorsed Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, R-S.C., in the special election to fill her late brother’s Senate seat for a full term in a post on Truth Social Friday.

“I asked Darline, for the Good of our Nation, to run for the U.S. Senate in the Special Republican Primary on Tuesday, August 11, 2026,” Trump wrote. “I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey.”

The president added later in his post that Graham Nordone has his “complete and total endorsement.”

She was appointed earlier this week by South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster to serve out the rest of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s term in the Senate, through early January.

After she was sworn in on Tuesday, Sen. Darline Graham Nordone became South Carolina’s first female senator. She and her late brother often spoke about their close relationship, which included Lindsey Graham adopting his younger sister when she was 13, shortly after both of their parents died.

“I don’t know what I would have done without him,” she told Fox News in a joint interview in 2015.

The late senator died suddenly on Saturday night, triggering a Senate vacancy and a special election. He had been in the midst of a reelection campaign and had been selected by GOP voters in his state as the Republican nominee for Senate in June, setting him up for a general election to a potential fifth term in November.

Per South Carolina state law, GOP candidates wishing to run in Graham’s place can begin to file their intention to do so on July 21 and the special primary election will be held on Aug. 11. Graham’s sudden death set up a scramble last weekend among Republicans in the state as they searched for a potential candidate.

On Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said the newly sworn in Graham Nordone was “off to a remarkable start” in the Senate and said, “Why not her?” when asked whether she’d consider running for a full term.

Several other South Carolina GOP political figures who had been floated as potential candidates in the race to replace Lindsey Graham had been Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Businessman Mark Lynch, who lost to Graham in the June primary, on Monday said he planned to revive his Senate campaign in the wake of the senator’s death.