Senator Darline Graham donated to one of South Carolina’s so-called “sister senators” who blocked the state’s total abortion ban after their showdown made national headlines in 2023.
State records show a “Darlene Graham” with the senator’s address made a second $100 donation to former state Sen. Katrina Shealy on October 19, 2023.
It comes after the Daily Beast previously reported that Graham made a $100 contribution to Shealy’s state Senate campaign in 2020, before Roe v Wade was overturned and conservative states started passing abortion bans.
Graham has been looking to prove her conservative MAGA credentials since announcing she would run for a full term in the Senate after being appointed to fill her late brother’s seat for the remainder of his term.
The Daily Beast’s inquiry about her 2020 donation to the state senator, who went on to become one of the leading fighters against South Carolina’s abortion ban three years later, went unanswered. But then Graham’s office scrambled to prove her anti-abortion stance ahead of the competitive special election.
On Wednesday, Graham announced she backed seven bills restricting abortion access or funding bills in the Senate, and declared in a statement, “I’m proud to be pro-life and to stand up for the unborn and expecting moms.”
But her donation to Shealy’s tough reelection bid after her fight to block the abortion ban in South Carolina casts doubt on her newly released anti-abortion credentials.
The Daily Beast asked Graham’s office for comment on the donation to Shealy after her fight to preserve abortion in the state.
Shealy was a South Carolina state senator who represented the Senate’s 23rd district around Lexington, where Graham is also from. She was one of the state’s only five women senators who joined together in spring 2023 to fight the passage of a bill banning nearly all abortion the year after Roe v Wade was overturned.
The five women senators, including three Republicans, became known as the “sister senators.” While their fight was lauded by pro-choice groups across the country, the decision by the three Republican women to fight the ban enraged other GOP state lawmakers, and all three women faced Republican primary challengers in the 2024 election.
While Graham’s first $100 donation to Shealy in 2020 came before her showdown over Republicans’ attempt to pass the ban, her October 2023 $100 donation would have supported the state senator’s campaign as she fought to hold off a male primary challenger, who launched a bid in response to her actions on abortion.
Shealy went on to lose her 2024 primary for the state District 23 seat in a runoff in June 2024.
Graham earned an early endorsement from President Donald Trump even before she officially announced she would run for a full six-year term. But her appointment to fill the remainder of her brother’s term and her plan to run have been met with a mix of criticism and skepticism by some Republicans.
Graham looked to shore up confidence that she would be a Trump ally in the Senate if elected to the seat by co-sponsoring the SAVE America Act, the president’s top priority. She also appeared to be trying to win over the anti-abortion wing of the GOP with her latest announcement on bills she was backing.
However, despite years of experience in public service, including as a commissioner for the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and as a member of the South Carolina State Workforce Development Board, many of Graham’s political positions remain unknown.
Graham, 62, introduced her brother when he ran for president in 2016 and has been featured in his campaign videos, but she largely focused on their humble beginnings and how late Senator Lindsey Graham, at just 22, jumped in to help raise her after their parents died when she was just a kid.
The newly appointed senator has never held an elected position before or run for political office. She is one of several Republican candidates running in the August 11 special election to replace her brother as the GOP Senate nominee in the midterms.
Other candidates include Reps. Russell Fry, Ralph Norman, former Rep. Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch.
