When Darline Graham announced her bid for Senate, she said she wanted “to carry my brother Lindsey’s legacy on behalf of the people of South Carolina.”
But throughout her six-week campaign, she has spoken far more about her desire to support President Trump’s agenda than she has talked about her brother’s political goals — or her own. She did not put a platform on her campaign website.
After a close victory in a special primary runoff on Tuesday, she is now the favorite to win a six-year term in the Senate.
While some of her views remain fuzzy, here is a look at how she could differ from her late brother, how she is aligned with him and what kind of politician she might be in the coming years:
She will be less focused on foreign affairs than Mr. Graham was — but she supports most of the same policies.
Ms. Graham has said she wants to focus more on “affordability” than on foreign affairs and admitted at a recent debate that she was “not that informed on national security.” That sets her apart from Mr. Graham, an outspoken hawk with a passion for foreign policy.
However, when Ms. Graham was asked how she would “alleviate prices” for Americans, she offered no indication that she would use her office to do so and said she trusted Mr. Trump “to get the Strait of Hormuz open.”
The war with Iran has led to higher gas prices as oil tankers struggle to cross the strait, a major commercial passageway.
“We have to pay a little now, but ultimately in the end, if we prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon, which is his goal, I think he will be successful and our country will be better off,” Ms. Graham added.
She also said she supported the increased military spending Mr. Trump sought. She has backed American aid for Israel, though she added that the United States should “try all economic solutions before we put boots on the ground” on behalf of the Jewish state.
Unlike her brother, she supports ending the filibuster.
Both Ms. Graham and her late brother backed the SAVE America Act, sweeping legislation pushed by Mr. Trump that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, impose a nationwide voter identification requirement and drastically limit voting by mail. (She is now cosponsoring the bill in the Senate.)
But unlike her brother, Ms. Graham supports Mr. Trump’s goal of ending the Senate filibuster, a rule that effectively requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass most major legislation, in order to pass the voting bill.
Ending the filibuster would radically change how the upper chamber works, removing a major incentive for lawmakers to work across the aisle.
She vehemently opposes illegal immigration, taking a more conservative stance than her brother.
Ms. Graham differs from her brother on immigration policy, she has said, because she believes that “if you are here illegally, you need to be deported immediately.” She also opposes birthright citizenship.
“Lindsay and I differ in one area — that’s illegal immigration,” she said at a news conference on Monday, adding, “I miss him dearly, but my stance is a little bit stronger.”
This position, too, places her more in line with Mr. Trump than her brother was. As recently as 2023, Mr. Graham supported amnesty for people who entered the United States illegally as children. He once warned that Mr. Trump’s pledge to aggressively deport unauthorized immigrants would “tear the party apart.”
More recently, though, Mr. Graham criticized birthright citizenship and was a key sponsor of a bill to increase funding for immigration enforcement.
Like Lindsey, she opposes abortion rights.
Mr. Graham was a vocal opponent of abortion rights. His sister has also made the issue a top priority.
“Every unborn baby deserves the chance to live,” she said at a campaign event with the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group that endorsed her.
She opposes transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports.
Ms. Graham has argued that transgender girls should not be allowed to compete in girls’ sports, a view her brother shared.
“Boys do not have any place in girls’ sports, certainly not in the locker room,” she said on Friday at a rally with Mr. Trump.
She supports Social Security, with caveats.
Ms. Graham supports expanding federal funding for rural hospitals and maintaining programs like Social Security and Medicare, she said at the debate last week.
However, she added that she wanted the government to help people no longer rely on Social Security, including through job-training initiatives. She also wants to “cut fraud and waste.”
She opposes “Medicare for all,” which she said would “bankrupt our country.”
She supports regulating A.I. and placing limited guardrails on data centers.
Ms. Graham has said she supports data centers and artificial intelligence because the United States cannot afford to lose the global A.I. race to China. However, she has proposed that data centers be required to “build their own water and power supplies or subsidize utilities so the rates decrease, not increase.”
She has said that she is “personally very scared” of A.I. and that there needs to be “some federal bans” on the technology.
She will lean on her brother’s staff.
On Tuesday night, Ms. Graham said her brother’s Senate staff had committed to staying with her, ensuring continuity for constituent services.
She has suggested she will be a rubber stamp for Trump’s agenda.
Lindsey Graham was one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, but he occasionally pushed back. He staked out a more moderate approach on immigration, supported the Senate filibuster and rejected Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020.
Ms. Graham, in contrast, has praised Mr. Trump at every opportunity and has acknowledged that she could not have won her primary without him. She has said she completely trusts him on the war with Iran and imposing tariffs, two areas where he has taken the most heat from fellow Republicans. And on Monday, she dodged a question on whether she would have voted to certify Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in 2020.
She made her position clear at the Friday rally: “I will have President Trump’s back 100 percent.”
