Republican South Carolina voters raced to the polls Tuesday to decide who will replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot in November, but before the polls closed, Republicans were already betting on President Donald Trump’s hand-picked candidate going down in flames, NOTUS reported.
Graham’s sister, Darline Lettie Graham Nordone — who notably has dropped her married name in her campaign material — was endorsed by Trump to replace her late brother, and heads into the race as an incumbent after being nominated to serve in her brother’s seat on an interim basis by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. Nordone faces Rep. Ralph Norman in a special runoff election.
However, according to “multiple Republican sources” who spoke with NOTUS, a Nordone victory is “viewed as increasingly unlikely,” particularly after a debate gaffe last week in which she admitted that national security was not her “thing,” and that she wasn’t “that informed on national security.”
“You’re running a campaign with a virtual unknown that took on all of her brother’s unfavorables without any of the goodwill that her brother has in a very short-sprint special election,” said a Republican operative with “experience” in South Carolina races, speaking with NOTUS on the condition of anonymity.
“Her only good is hyper-engaged Trump voters. There is no Darline Graham voter. No one’s voting for Darline because of Darline.”
According to a survey obtained by NOTUS, Nordone’s opponent, Norman, held out a single-digit lead over Nordone, though a lack of neutral polls has “left many Republicans to go off vibes,” the outlet reported — and the vibes were spelling disaster for Trump’s pick.
On Friday, Trump told South Carolina Republicans to “pretend” he was on the ballot in an effort to push Nordone over the edge. Were Nordone to lose Tuesday night, the president would suffer what GOP strategist Matthew Bartlett called a “massive, massive embarrassment.”
