By Jarrett Renshaw, Jacob Bogage and David Morgan
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina, Aug 21 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump campaigned on Friday for political novice Darline Graham in the race for her late brother’s U.S. Senate seat, a contest that could test the White House’s political clout before November midterm elections.
Trump offered a meandering hour-and-20-minute address as Graham faces her stiffest political headwind after she tripped over a basic foreign policy question during a recent debate with U.S. Representative Ralph Norman, her opponent in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff election.
Her brother, Lindsey Graham, a veteran of the Senate and political ally of Trump, died suddenly in July from a heart issue. Trump quickly endorsed his younger sister to take his place.
TRUMP CALLS GRAHAM’S DEBATE PERFORMANCE ‘HONEST’
Lindsey Graham was a foreign policy leader in the Republican Party, which made Darline Graham’s debate stumble — in response to a question on Tuesday about the U.S. alliance with Taiwan — all the more striking. Her career before politics focused on services for people with disabilities, though her brother often said she was an astute political adviser.
“I’m just going to be honest here. I’m not that informed on national security,” she said to an astonished debate audience. “National security is not my thing.”
On Friday, she focused her remarks on domestic culture issues, including restricting rights for transgender people, supporting Trump’s immigration agenda and opposing abortion access.
“The critics say I shouldn’t run for the Senate,” Graham said. “They say I’m not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.”
Trump shrugged off her debate response, calling it a “very honest answer” before boarding Air Force One for his flight to the rally at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. “She’s going to do what the military wants, and, really, what the president wants.”
During the rally, Trump said Lindsey Graham was “very much about the world,” while Darline Graham was “more about affordability.”
Trump in February had a vastly different response when an opponent struggled with a similar question. U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, stumbled over a question about Taiwan at a security conference. Trump’s response then was blunt: “Her performance was horrible. I was surprised actually, I didn’t know she was stupid.”
Graham’s debate response threatens to reopen wounds within the Republican Party over Trump’s rapid endorsement. And it could raise questions about the president’s clout in the midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake, if conservatives reject his favored candidate.
“Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not. This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate,” former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Norman supporter, said on X.
TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘ON THE BALLOT’ IN MIDTERMS
Trump attempted to cast Tuesday’s primary vote less about issues and more as a test of which candidate was truer to his “Make America Great Again” movement. “I am on the ballot,” he said repeatedly.
Rebecca Stoltz, a 54-year-old teacher, joined hundreds of Trump supporters at the convention center in the South Carolina beach community. She said she drove two hours and waited in line for several more in the summer heat to secure a spot inside. Neither the war with Iran nor persistent inflation has swayed her from supporting Trump.
“It’s a price we are paying to have a safe world,” Stoltz said.
Trump’s party faces an increasingly difficult climate in the midterms, but South Carolina is unlikely to be a battleground. Trump won the state in 2024 by 18 percentage points, and both Graham and Norman cast themselves as the president’s allies.
Graham and Norman emerged from a Republican field of 10 candidates in a special Senate primary on August 11. Graham bested Norman 32.8% to 24.6% but fell well short of the majority needed to win the contest outright.
The runoff campaign has revolved around which candidate hews closer to Trump’s agenda.
“Darline Graham supports President Donald J. Trump every day on every major issue,” said Tim Scott, South Carolina’s other Republican senator, at the rally.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Jacob Bogage and David Morgan; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt, Alistair Bell, Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard)
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