Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, appointed Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to replace him in the US Senate following his death on Saturday, after US president Donald Trump recommended that she be given the role.Her appointment was welcomed by politicians from both parties, who saw Nordone as an appropriate replacement for the brother who had raised her after their parents died when she was a teenager.“Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed. It’s my honour to ask his little sister, Darline Graham, to finish his work for him now,” the Republican governor said at a press conference convened at South Carolina’s state capital in Columbia.Surrounded by the grieving family and friends of Graham as well as Tim Scott, who is now the state’s senior US senator following his colleague’s death, McMaster called Lindsey Graham an “irreplaceable” and “extraordinary” man. In brief remarks Nordone (62) said: “Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him.”She offered no hint of deviation from her brother’s politics and made note that she would join the ranks of Trump’s allies in the Senate.[ Lindsey Graham betrayed his younger self by becoming Trump’s golf buddy and confidantOpens in new window ]“I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States,” Nordone said. “I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honour him in this way.”Closing with a personal message for her late brother, she said: “I miss you more than I can even put into words, but I’m going to do this. I got it.”The newly appointed senator and McMaster departed, without taking questions.Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2019. Photograph: TJ Kirkpatrick/The New York Times