President Donald Trump wants late Senator Lindsey Graham‘s sister to fill the vacant seat left behind after the South Carolina lawmaker’s sudden passing.
‘I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,’ the President wrote on social media.
‘This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!’
Darline Graham Nordone, the late Senator’s younger sister, has never served in public office.
The South Carolina Governor is expected to speak Monday afternoon about the late Senator and the vacancy in Congress left by his passing.
McMaster is allowed to appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends on January 3, 2027. The Governor may decide to appoint a ‘caretaker’ to the role who will not run for the seat in the midterms later this year.
It is unclear whether Darline’s appointment would be a ‘caretaker’ selection or if she would formally announce a run for his seat in a special primary election.
Graham’s death kicks off a one-week registration period for a special primary election so that a new candidate can swiftly fill the vacancy, according to South Carolina law.
President Donald Trump with Senator Lindsey Graham at a South Carolina campaign event in January 2023
Senator Lindsey Graham waves while riding in a golf cart to a television interview with his sister Darline Graham Nordone, center, in 2015
Trump said that he would like South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to appoint Darline Graham Nordone to her late brother’s vacant Senate seat
The special primary election registration is slated to begin July 21, and the election would be held two Tuesdays later, on August 11.
If there is a runoff for the special primary election, it would follow two weeks later on August 25.
The winner of the special primary election would go on to face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews in the November race.
Already there is speculation about which South Carolina politicians may hop into the special primary election.
Lieutenant Governor Pamella Everette, Fox News host and former Congressman Trey Gowdy, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Congressman Ralph Norman and more have been mentioned as possible candidates.
Lindsey and Darline Graham were incredibly close, and after the siblings’ parents died 15 months apart in the 1970s, the Senator, then 21, legally adopted his teenage sister and helped raise her.
The Senator never married or had children but noted that he did have a family, namely his younger sister.
The pair were raised in Central, South Carolina, near Clemson University. Their parents operated a bar and pool hall. The young Graham siblings lived in a room in the back of the establishment.
Graham and Trump were known to golf together. Above they are pictured playing at one of the President’s resorts last year
Graham was on Air Force One with Trump a day after the US military raid that captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. Graham cheered on the Presidnet’s use of force
‘He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one,’ Darline told the New York Times in 2015.
The Senator kept close tabs on his younger sister as the two grew up without their parents.
The Republican’s law school friends told NPR that Lindsey would visit his sister on weekends and would inquire about if she was keeping curfew and who she was spending time with.
After joining the Air Force as a military lawyer, he adopted Darline, ensuring that if anything happened to him that his benefits would flow to her.
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