When Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC) released her first campaign ad, she thanked South Carolinians for their prayers, President Donald Trump for his endorsement, and then stated her positions on three issues.
“I am a conservative Republican and I believe this,” she said, looking into the camera. “Every life is precious.”
South Carolina is a socially conservative state and its new senator was reassuring Republican voters that she, like her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), opposes abortion.
“Men don’t belong in women’s sports,” she continued, affirming that under Title IX, where applicable, sports participation should be based on biological sex rather than gender identity.
“And only American citizens should vote in our elections,” Graham Nordone concluded, consistent with Trump’s push to pass the SAVE America Act and to purge noncitizens from voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections.
Missing was any reference to Iran, Ukraine, or any of the foreign-policy issues that animated her late brother during his 23 years in the Senate and more than three decades on Capitol Hill.
Her social media feed is similarly dominated by domestic affairs. “I know the struggles our families are facing in grocery store lines and at the gas pump,” Darline Graham, as she goes by on X, posted. “It’s my priority to finally give South Carolinians the economic relief that so many need right now.”
“The SAVE America Act is top priority,” she wrote last month, receiving an approving repost from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). “I will stay here as long as necessary to get it passed and signed into law. I came to Washington to fight for the people of South Carolina and deliver on our conservative agenda.”
“The American people work hard for their money, and they expect their tax dollars to go toward worthy causes – not criminals,” Graham Nordone wrote in a different post. “In recent months, there’s been growing alarm regarding the billions of dollars in fraudulent activity uncovered around the country.”
“Fraudsters who steal public funds must be held accountable,” she continued, sharing a New York Post story on anti-fraud bills being pushed by Senate Republicans. “It’s time to take action to prevent these criminals from getting their hands on your money in the first place.”
“President Trump was elected with a mandate to clean up the immigration catastrophe created under Joe Biden,” she wrote in yet another post. “I applaud the work the President has done to secure the southern border, but there’s more to be done.” The senator then outlined a series of tough immigration-enforcement measures she supported, a slight departure from her brother, who more than a decade ago was derided as “Grahamnesty” by conservative activists, though that became less the case in the Trump era.
Graham’s sister also detailed her anti-abortion bona fides, tying it to her work with the blind. “One of my core convictions is my belief in protecting the sanctity of human life at every stage,” she wrote. “For years, I’ve committed my life to fighting for vulnerable populations, and no one is more vulnerable than an unborn child who cannot speak for themselves.
“As a mother, I know that welcoming children into this world is God’s greatest gift,” she continued. “I’m proud to be pro-life and to stand up for the unborn and expecting moms. I will not waver in my support for life, pregnant women, and families.”
The senator also listed bills she supported to keep biological males from competing against women and girls in sports. “As the mother of a volleyball player who traveled with my daughter and her team throughout South Carolina and the southeast, I know how dangerous it is to have boys playing in girls’ sports,” she wrote. “I also know how hard these young women practice to improve their game.”
The closest Graham Nordone ever comes to mentioning a defense-related issue is when she expressed support for the Major Richard Star Act, which bolsters military retirement pay. “The many freedoms that South Carolinians enjoy are only possible thanks to the brave patriots who answer the call to defend our nation,” she wrote. “When our men and women in uniform return home, we owe it to them to honor their sacrifice.”
But this makes sense in a military-heavy state with many veterans. It doesn’t necessarily have any foreign-policy implications.
Sen. Darline Graham Nordone was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) to temporarily fill the vacancy created by her brother’s untimely death last month. She is also running in the Aug. 11 primary to replace him as the GOP nominee for a full six-year term.
Much less is known about her than her brother, but she has signaled she would be more domestically focused than he was before. “I used to see him on the talk shows. I would watch him, and I’d be like, ‘Lindsey, you’re just talking about national security all the time.’ And I understand that’s important, protecting our wars, national security, absolutely,” she told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “But also talk about what matters to the average person, the price of groceries, the price of gas, healthcare, insurance. Those are the kinds of things that I’m worried about. So I think that’s important too.”
Lindsey Graham was known for his focus on foreign policy, something that remained consistent as his political allegiances shifted from John McCain to Donald Trump. Trump put it differently in his eulogy for the late senator: “I will tell you, he never saw a war that he didn’t like.”
Since Graham’s death, we have learned more about his efforts to ensure the Iran war happens.
So far, his sister has different priorities. Polls show the voters, in South Carolina and elsewhere, certainly do.
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An Emerson College poll late last month, which found the new senator slightly behind Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) but potentially on track to make a runoff, found 60% named the economy as their top issue, while only 4% picked foreign policy.
“It’s worth losing my job,” the late senator said of Iran and the midterm elections on NBC’s Meet the Press earlier this year. His sister, who just got the job, may feel differently.