President Trump has stuck his neck out for Senator Darline Graham.
In the weeks leading up to South Carolina’s primary election runoff for Senate on Tuesday, Mr. Trump traveled to Myrtle Beach to rally supporters and personally called high-level state officials to compel them to endorse Ms. Graham. A super PAC run by his advisers, MAGA Inc., notoriously wary to spend on races this cycle, paid for text messages encouraging potential supporters to vote for her.
On the line: The president’s credibility in a state that twice in the last six months has rejected his preferences. In June, voters discarded his first choice for governor, prompting him to make a second endorsement in the final stretch. And earlier this year, the Republican-held State Senate declined to take up a new congressional map backed by Mr. Trump and other national Republicans that would have eliminated South Carolina’s lone majority Black district, which is held by a Democrat.
With several high-profile losses in other states, Mr. Trump’s national endorsement track record is at stake, too. After touting Ms. Graham more enthusiastically than most other candidates, a loss for her would amount to a huge loss for him.
Ms. Graham is facing Representative Ralph Norman, a hard-line conservative who has occasionally irked the president, in the race to serve a full, six-year term following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham in July. The winner in the solidly Republican state will compete in November against Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee.
A longtime administrator of disability services, Ms. Graham had never held public office until the state’s governor appointed her to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term in the Senate. Weeks later, on Aug. 11, she finished first in a crowded special primary election, boosted by Mr. Trump’s endorsement and a pitch to voters that she would carry on the most popular parts of her brother’s tenure. That included pledges to keep his staff, who are well-liked for their constituent services, and to follow the wishes of the president. But in the final week of a whirlwind election the political winds have shifted against her.
Last week, during the only televised debate of the runoff, Ms. Graham stumbled over a question about the importance of Taiwan to U.S. interests, admitting that she was “not that informed on national security.” A day earlier, the Republican Party chapter in her home county endorsed Mr. Norman. Plenty of empty space was visible at Mr. Trump’s rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday, and not everyone who attended seemed entirely sold on Ms. Graham.
Some attendees said they were there to learn more about her. Most had heard her comment about not knowing enough about foreign policy and offered tepid defenses of her ignorance, saying she could learn on the job.
“You know, she’s never done it before, but she knows politics well,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Graham at the rally on Friday. “But she loves our military; she loves things that have to do with greatness for America.”
Other voters across the state over the last week expressed skepticism in interviews over what they described as a feeling that political insiders in Washington, including the president, were trying to choose their senator for them.
“This is just inside establishment B.S.,” said Curtis Loftis, the state treasurer who endorsed Mr. Norman, of Ms. Graham’s candidacy. “She’s been asked by the president and then asked by the governor, and this has all just been foisted on her.”
The campaigns of Ms. Graham and Mr. Norman, along with officials with MAGA Inc., did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the state of the race.
South Carolina has a long history of bristling at top-down politics. In 2018, Henry McMaster, the lieutenant governor at the time, was forced into a runoff election for governor against a 39-year-old political newcomer, despite having the support of Mr. Trump.
Ms. Graham, in part with the help of Mr. Trump, has racked up endorsements from some of South Carolina’s most powerful officials. Senator Tim Scott, who chairs the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, has been a fierce advocate. Representative Russell Fry, one of her chief opponents in the primary election in July, backed her after the president asked him to. And Mr. McMaster, who initially refrained from weighing in on the primary, endorsed Ms. Graham the day Mr. Trump touched down in his state for the rally.
The president had called Mr. McMaster earlier that week, two people familiar with the conversation said.
He had also called Mark Sanford, a former South Carolina governor and congressman who has been openly critical of the president, to urge him to endorse Ms. Graham. On the day of Mr. Trump’s visit to the state, Mr. Sanford endorsed Mr. Norman, saying in a lengthy statement that “as much as I would like to honor tradition and old friendships, the stakes are simply too high as our nation really is at a financial tipping point.”
On the trail, Mr. Norman frequently touts his endorsements from Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, two Republicans who have drawn accolades from the party’s conservative base because they are frequently a thorn in the side of their party’s leadership.
Rob Godfrey, a longtime South Carolina Republican political strategist, said primary voters in the state are typically highly informed and eager to make their own decisions at the ballot box.
“Our voters don’t always take advice from other politicians, no matter what office they hold, about who to support,” he said. “While both of these candidates have their fair share of endorsements, our voters are hyper-informed, thanks to the number of candidates they meet face-to-face, take their own agency seriously at the ballot box, have an independent streak and expect they’ll know the person they end up supporting personally.”
Over the weekend, the candidates stopped by local restaurants and held town halls, looking to personally greet as many South Carolinians as possible. But on Monday night, hours before Election Day, Ms. Graham will do something that her opponent cannot: participate in a virtual rally with one of her fiercest supporters, Mr. Trump.
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting.
