South Carolina lawmakers are already lining up for a shot at filling longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham’s seat after his unexpected death.
State law gives the governor power to appoint a temporary replacement to fill the seat until Jan. 3 of next year, when Graham’s current term would have expired. The governor, in this case Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, has full discretion over who to appoint.
But because Graham, 71, had already secured the GOP nomination in his fifth run for the Senate, a special primary must be held by Aug. 11 to find a new nominee. That nominee will face Democratic nominee Dr. Annie Andrews in the 2026 midterm elections in November.
South Carolina is one of 46 states that give the governor the power to fill a vacancy with an appointment.
Unlike some states, South Carolina does not require that the governor appoint someone from the same political party as the senator who left office.
McMaster has not yet indicated who he would nominate. In a statement, his office called Graham the “fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America.”
Some lawmakers from South Carolina have already indicated they are eyeing the late senator’s seat.
House Republican Joe Wilson, 78, and Nancy Mace, who just lost a primary to become the GOP nominee for governor, have both reportedly expressed interest in Graham’s seat.
Mace, 48, had previously tried to oust Graham from the Senate, mounting a long-shot primary challenge in 2014, but was unsuccessful as she came in fifth place.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who lost the Republican nomination for governor in a runoff election earlier this year, has not yet indicated a move for the Senate seat.
Alan Wilson, son of Congressman Joe Wilson and the state’s attorney general, won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary last month, beating Mace and Evette, and is not seen as a contender.
Graham died Saturday night “from a brief and sudden illness,” his office said in a statement. He was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and was a close ally of President Donald Trump.
Paramedics responded to a call for a person suffering chest pains at the Capitol Hill home owned by Graham around 8:30 p.m., according to police audio. Emergency personnel later could be heard saying that CPR was in progress and that a man at the house was suffering from cardiac arrest.
His death came just hours after he returned to Washington from a trip to Ukraine, where he was photographed meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. He celebrated his 71st birthday last week.
There had been no indication Graham was feeling unwell before his sudden death.
His unexpected passing, along with Sen. Mitch McConnell’s prolonged hospitalization, creates a headache for Senate Republicans, narrowing the already thin GOP majority at least temporarily.
