By MEG KINNARD Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Sen. Darline Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman are wrapping up their compressed campaigns to win South Carolina's Republican nomination in a special U.S. Senate primary to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on November ballots.
Tuesday's Senate runoff tests the heft of both a famous political last name and the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who is backing Darline Graham and campaigned in the state for her days ahead of the vote.
The matchup pits the well-known Norman — fresh off an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid earlier this summer — against Graham, the late senator's sister who was thrust into the political spotlight with her interim appointment, then a sprint of a primary campaign.
Trump making final push for Darline Graham
Graham drew early criticism for being in Washington for Senate votes instead of on the ground in South Carolina, where many voters said they didn’t know anything about her or her positions. She’s been trying to make up that ground, holding meet and greet events, including two on Monday in Aiken and Seneca, as well as a news conference with Gov. Henry McMaster, who appointed her to the interim post and endorsed Graham on Friday.
Trump on Monday night also planned the second of two tele-rallies for Graham.
The president, long closely allied with Lindsey Graham, has done more to promote Darline Graham's candidacy than he has for others he’s endorsed in this year’s midterms. Trump encouraged her to run and traveled to South Carolina on Friday for a rally with Graham in Myrtle Beach.
Before several thousand people — some of whom said they came mostly to see the president, not his chosen candidate — Trump urged “every South Carolina patriot to go to the polls and vote for Darline Graham.”
When McMaster appointed Graham last month, a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly about it said the governor had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.
Asked Monday why he had waited until late last week to endorse Graham, McMaster said simply that “I thought that was the right time.”
Norman crisscrossing the state to make his final campaign case
On Monday, Norman planned two events with pastors, ending his runoff campaign in Greenville. The most populous in the state, Greenville County typically contributes the most votes in statewide Republican primaries.
It’s also bucked against the front-runners in recent GOP contests. Norman also carried Greenville County in the gubernatorial primary earlier this year — and it was one of the only counties Lindsey Graham lost in his final election, this year’s original June primary.
Norman has decried the role of super PAC spending against him in the runoff campaign, accusing Graham of being funded by special interests who are pushing their own agenda through her candidacy. The wealthy developer has made large personal transfers into his campaign coffers and promoted his voting record and business acumen.
Norman has frequently reminded voters of his history supporting the president’s policies in Congress. He’s also portrayed his opponent as inexperienced for a six-year shot at the Senate job, saying in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press that the “Washington elite” who funded Graham were “dictating the terms and giving her the political answers” in her campaign.
At a town hall Friday, Norman leaned into his experience in elected politics and in the business world, reiterating his campaign trail slight against Graham, a political newcomer, that the Senate isn't a place to get “training on the job.”
“We've had a short runway, and I'm so glad I did this,” Norman told voters at a town hall in Anderson. “You have to know it. You have to be in it, and that's one of the advantages that I have.”
The winner of Tuesday's GOP runoff will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November. No Democrat has won a statewide-elected office in South Carolina in two decades.
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