By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Despite a lot of late buzz from the D.C. punditry about interim Senator Darline Graham wrecking her campaign for a full term with an admission of foreign policy ignorance in her one debate with runoff rival Ralph Norman, Lindsey Graham’s sister won the GOP nomination by a slim but indisputable margin in South Carolina last night. Donald Trump’s backing was certainly one important factor in her victory over Norman, and old-school fiscal hawk and House Freedom Caucus curmudgeon who made the mistake of endorsing Nikki Haley over Trump in the 2024 presidential race.
But a look at the map confirms that geography shaped the results more than anything else. In the first primary led by Graham she did well in the Midlands region where she lives, and also quite well in the Low Country region where the native son candidate was the rather shopworn former governor Mark Sanford. As significant as Trump’s endorsement was, it was his ally Russell Fry (the third-place candidate in the primary) whose endorsement may have mattered nearly as much in the runoff, along with the rally in Fry’s home town of Myrtle Beach that Trump addressed last weekend in a final push for Graham. Fry Country on August 11 became Graham Country on August 25, which in the end more than counter-balanced Norman’s strong performance in his base in the northwestern part of the state. Late-counted votes from Rock Hill (Norman’s home town), Spartanberg and vote-rich Greenville County kept things interesting as the votes rolled in, but it just wasn’t enough.
