GOP Congressman Who Lost Senate Primary to Darline Graham Will Vote for Her — but Don’t Ask Him To Support Her Campaign

A Republican lawmaker who lost this summer’s special Senate primary to Senator Darline Graham says he refuses to campaign with her after she narrowly won thanks, in part, to President Trump’s endorsement and outside spending from Mr. Trump’s allies. Congressman Ralph Norman says some members of his family won’t even cast a ballot for Ms. Graham. Ms. Graham was appointed to the Senate in July, just days after her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, passed away. One day after she was sworn in, Mr. Trump told Ms. Graham during an Oval Office to run for a full term even though many expected her to simply be a placeholder through the end of her brother’s term, which concludes in early January. Ms. Graham faced several Republican candidates during the special primary one month later, though Mr. Norman was the one to advance to the runoff election against her — a race she went on to narrowly win.“I took a pledge when I ran for the Senate … to support the Republican nominee. I’m going to do that,” Mr. Norman said during an appearance on the South Carolina radio show “The National Briefing with Kelly Nash” on Wednesday. He says, though, that he personally won’t be out on the trail with Ms. Graham, even though her team has asked him to appear with her. “I just can’t take part in something like that,” he said. Mr. Norman also said that several members of his family will not be casting their votes for Ms. Graham, though he did not say if those family members are leaving the Senate box on their ballot blank or if they will cast votes for the Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews. “My family is not going to vote for Darline Graham. They’re just not,” the outgoing congressman said. “They’re grown and with their own children can do what they want, but I will because I promised to do that.”Mr. Norman has served in the House for nearly a decade after winning a special election in 2017. A Freedom Caucus member, he has often been a thorn in the side of House Republican leadership, demanding steeper spending cuts to the annual appropriations bills. He and other Freedom Caucus members have made it a point to withhold their support on critical procedural motions in order to win more conservative outcomes on legislation like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — something Mr. Trump did not appreciate. At a press event last year, Mr. Trump publicly complained that it was always the same conservatives who were holding out on him, and that they always folded once he spoke to them in the middle of the night. For that — and, as Mr. Trump tells it, for his love of the late Graham — the president chose to send out his first political check of the 2026 midterms on behalf of Ms. Graham. The nearly $900,00 get-out-the vote operation was the first money he spent for a non-special election candidate this year, which baffled Mr. Norman. The congressman had been endorsed by several conservative lawmakers, including Senators Mike Lee and Rick Scott, while Ms. Graham received the support of Senate Republican leadership. Mr. Norman says Ms. Graham’s poor fundraising and poor standing in the polls is now on the GOP establishment, including Mr. Trump. “What he did to South Carolina to try to force South Carolinians to vote for a candidate and hire for six years is just not right,” Mr. Norman said Wednesday. “We’ve got a candidate that nobody knows anything about and you get ready to hire her for six years because she was a relative of Lindsey Graham.”“I like Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham voted with Democrats, though,” Mr. Norman said. Some conservatives in the state have been pushing Mr. Norman to mount a write-in campaign for the general election, though he has refused to do so. Still, there were more than 175,000 people who cast ballots for Mr. Norman in that special GOP primary, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that some of those people either sit out the race or cast a ballot for Dr. Andrews out of spite. “My message is vote for conscience and let the chips fall where they may,” Mr. Norman said of the write-in effort. “This race shouldn’t even be close, and it wouldn’t be if I were in the race.”According to polling, Dr. Andrews has made this a single-digit race with Ms. Graham. The most recent polling averages show Ms. Graham with only a two-point lead in a state Mr. Trump carried by 18 points two years ago. Dr. Andrews is also significantly outraising Ms. Graham, having hauled in more than $9 million in the last quarter, compared to Ms. Graham who raised only $786,000. Republican groups are now diverting $5 million from Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia to save Ms. Graham.

GOP Congressman Who Lost Senate Primary to Darline Graham Will Vote for Her — but Don’t Ask Him To Support Her Campaign

GOP Congressman Who Lost Senate Primary to Darline Graham Will Vote for Her — but Don’t Ask Him To Support Her Campaign

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