Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was booed by her hometown crowd during an embarrassing televised debate.
The 62-year-old Republican is vying to replace her brother full-time as U.S. senator for South Carolina with the backing of his friend and ally, President Donald Trump.
Despite the Trump sign-off, neither Graham nor the more experienced Rep. Ralph Norman received enough votes to avoid a primary runoff on Aug. 25. Graham was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster, at Trump’s urging, to serve out her brother’s term after his shock death in July at age 71.
During the debate in Newberry on Tuesday, Graham was asked by co-moderator Greta Van Susteren whether Taiwan and the South China Sea were national security issues for the United States.
After initially asking Van Susteren to repeat the question, Graham admitted, “I’m just going to be honest here... I’m not that informed on national security.”
The admission saw the audience boo Graham, who paused briefly, then added, “But I do support the military,” mentioning her late brother’s 33-year tenure in the U.S. Air Force and her father’s time in the U.S. Army.
“I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I support the military.”
Lindsey Graham had a reputation as a “war hawk,” dedicating his Senate career to foreign policy issues, and pushing aggressively for maximum force to be used against Iran.
Nikki Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, called out Graham’s response on X, writing, “Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not. This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate.”
Van Susteren asked Norman the same question, showing up Graham’s lack of experience.
“Taiwan’s a definite ally,” Norman said. “What the president is doing right is, he’s enabling Taiwan to defend themselves against China. But it’s peace through strength he’s showing with Iran, that China, Russia, and others are looking at it so they don’t want to deal with America. And that’s why they haven’t attacked Taiwan.”
He added, “If they had a weak Democrat in office like Biden or another Obama, yeah, they’d take it over. But we can’t let that happen.”
Graham has attempted to differentiate herself from her brother by stating she is more focused on domestic issues that directly affect people like her.
She had another awkward moment in the debate when she said “There’s 50 million people in South Carolina,” when the population is actually around 5.5 million.
During the debate, Norman called out Graham’s ally Trump over the ongoing war with Iran.
“He’s going to have to tell the American people what it’s going to take if the Straits of Hormuz are still dominated by a country that’s supposed to be decimated,” Norman said.
