Darline Graham wins S. Carolina’s Senate Primary!
Washington, Aug 25 (EFE).-
Darline Graham, sister of the late former South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, won the state’s Republican primary Tuesday for the November Senate election, receiving 52.4% of the vote with the declared backing of President Donald Trump.
With 99% of the vote counted, Graham, who currently holds the Senate seat left vacant by her brother’s death in July, defeated the other candidate in the runoff, current Rep. Ralph Norman, who received 47.6% of the vote.
Although Darline Graham received the most support, 33%, in an initial primary that included 10 candidates, her victory was seen as a boost for Trump as he faces low approval ratings that several polls have attributed to the war in Iran and rising living costs in the United States.
It was the second time in two months that South Carolina voters have gone to the polls following the unexpected death of Lindsey Graham on July 11 from arteriosclerosis, a condition he had suffered from.
Lindsey Graham, who had served as a senator since 2003, won the June 9 primary — in which he was seeking a fifth term in the Senate — by nearly 28 percentage points.
His sister will face Democratic pediatrician Annie Andrews in the Nov. 3 election, when all 435 House seats and one-third of the Senate will be contested. The elections could cost Trump control of both chambers of Congress.
Trump invested considerable money in helping Darline Graham win. A Federal Election Commission report released this week showed that the organization that raises and spends money to support Trump and his endorsed candidates had spent $827,000 on text messages and phone calls for Graham, one of the largest expenditures of the election cycle.
The president also invested his time. In addition to endorsing her in numerous public statements, he campaigned alongside her in South Carolina last Friday.
At the event, the president urged his supporters to vote Tuesday as if he himself were on the ballot. EFE
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