RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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South Carolina Republicans will decide Tuesday who will replace Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot in November\u0027s midterm election, after a rushed campaign in the wake of his\u00a0sudden death\u00a0in July.Graham\u0027s sister, Sen. Darline Graham, faces Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday\u0027s runoff vote. The two candidates were the top two vote-getters in the special primary election on Aug. 11, with Darline Graham getting nearly 33% of the vote to Norman\u0027s almost 25%, after neither won 50% of the vote.The runoff contest comes after Darline Graham was appointed to serve out the remainder of her late brother\u0027s term, which ends early next year. The four-term senator had been seeking reelection, and had already won the Republican primary in June.\u00a0The winner of Tuesday\u0027s runoff will take on Dr. Annie Andrews, who won the Democratic primary\u00a0in June. Although the South Carolina Senate race is usually a fundraising boon to Democrats, the state remains solidly Republican and has just one Democratic representative in Congress.\u00a0President Trump, who had been close with Lindsey Graham, has thrown his support behind Darline Graham. He\u00a0campaigned for her in South Carolina last week and held a tele-rally for her on Monday.\u00a0Darline Graham, who has no prior experience in elected office, has also garnered the support of South Carolina\u0027s other senator, GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who said after her first few weeks in the Senate and her first-place finish in the primary that he\u0027s "confident she\u0027s the real deal."The newly minted senator has billed herself as "a problem solver, a critical thinker, and a leader," with decades of experience working for South Carolina. Darline Graham, 62, most recently served as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind. She has focused on domestic issues during the brief campaign, and her lack of a foreign policy background has raised some questions about her preparedness.In a debate last week, Graham conceded that she\u0027s inexperienced in some regards, most notably when she stumbled on a question\u00a0about Taiwan and the South China Sea. She said she\u0027s "not that informed on national security," in a stark contrast to her brother, an outspoken foreign policy hawk."I\u0027m not a polished politician," Graham said. "National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military."Graham had a close relationship with her brother, who never married or had children. She\u0027s cited their upbringing, where she and her brother observed their parents working long hours at their bar and liquor store in central South Carolina, for their shared work ethic. And as she\u0027s pledged to carry out her brother\u0027s legacy, she\u0027s also emphasized that she would chart her own path in the Senate, which could be more conservative than her brother\u0027s. During last week\u0027s debate, she quickly made her views on transgender athletes in sports, abortion and gun rights known.Meanwhile, Norman, who has represented South Carolina in the House since 2017, has presented himself as an experienced legislator with a track record as a conservative fighter, while calling Graham an "unknown candidate."\u00a0The real estate developer and longtime member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus was one of a handful of Republicans to jump into the special primary race despite the president\u0027s endorsement of Darline Graham. And for Norman, who was one of only two House Republicans\u00a0to back former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her bid to challenge Mr. Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024, it wasn\u0027t the first time he\u0027s been willing to break with the president.\u00a0Norman, 73, has the backing of Haley, who also served as ambassador to the U.N. during the first Trump administration, and called out Darline Graham\u0027s lack of experience after her debate performance."Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States\u0027 national security. Darline Graham admits she\u0027s not," Haley said on X. "This is not something you inherit. And it\u0027s critical in the U.S. Senate."
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