DANG IT, DARLINE

Trump’s ‘Hostage’ Senate Pick Sparks GOP Panic Days Before Election

Is a ruby-red state up for grabs?

Republicans are panicking over Darline Graham’s startlingly close Senate race in one of the country’s most conservative states.

In the final stretch before the midterm elections, numerous polls have shown Graham, 62, deadlocked with her Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, fueling anxiety that the GOP could lose a seat her late brother held for decades.

“It’s just been absolutely brutal,” Graham, who had never held public office before her appointment this summer, told The Wall Street Journal in an article published Sunday.

Behind closed doors, several Republican strategists have expressed frustration with Graham’s candidacy, which came after Donald Trump handpicked her to fill her brother’s seat and run for a full term. Now, the president has had to traverse the once-Republican stronghold to double down on his pick.

“The reason he’s here is she’s lagging in the polls. He’s doing it because she is in trouble,” Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost to Graham in the primaries, told the Journal. “He could be in other states, like Ohio or Texas that are in trouble, but he’s in Rock Hill, South Carolina.” Graham scored 52.5 percent of the votes to Norman’s 47.6 percent, according to the Associated Press.

At a rally in support of Graham’s Democratic rival, Paul Vining, a retired veteran who voted for Trump three times, bluntly explained to the Journal why he felt disillusioned with Graham: Standing onstage beside Trump, she looks like a “hostage.” A spokesperson for Graham did not immediately respond to questions from the Daily Beast.

The political novice prevailed in the Republican special primary runoff in August after Trump campaigned aggressively on her behalf, including hosting an in-person rally and repeatedly urging his Truth Social followers to vote for her.

Republican politicians including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson have also rallied behind Graham—even as others haven’t.

Norman, for example, has declined to say whether he will vote for his former opponent. His family has been even more explicit. In an op-ed titled, “Why This Lifelong Conservative Won’t Vote for Darline Graham,” his son, Warren Norman, wrote that he was “leaning” towards voting for Andrews—the first time he has ever seriously considered voting Democrat at the ballot box.

“If Senator Graham wins, the establishment that backed her will protect her in every primary to come. This seat could be hers for 24 years or more,” he argued. “If Annie Andrews wins and doesn’t stand up to her party the way she has promised, South Carolina voters can hold her accountable and replace her with a strong conservative in six.”

He joins a list of more than a hundred South Carolina Republicans who are publicly backing Andrews, a pediatrician.

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Graham has also been forced to contend with an October surprise of her own. A bombshell documentary released by a progressive group this month details accounts from three men who claimed that her brother, the late South Carolina senator and top Trump ally, paid them for sex—including one who was just 17 at the time.

Before his death in July at 71 from a rare heart condition, Graham spent three decades opposing same-sex marriage, workplace protections and open military service for gay people. Darline, for her part, has carried on her late brother’s crusade against the LGBTQ+ community.

Graham is among several of Trump’s handpicked midterm candidates facing tighter races than anticipated. Ken Paxton, Trump’s Senate candidate in Texas, also risks losing a once-Republican stronghold to his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.

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Laura EspositoBreaking News Reporter

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