South Carolina Republicans are locked in a tight matchup in the race to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate, with the special primary election set for Tuesday.
Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC), Graham’s sister who filled the late lawmaker’s unexpired term, was endorsed by President Donald Trump for the Aug. 11 special primary election. Nordone is taking on Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), businessman Mark Lynch, and former Gov. Mark Sanford in the primary to see who will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the November general election.
The multi-candidate race is expected to head to a primary runoff, which would take place on Aug. 25. Nordone, Norman, Fry, and Sanford are the only candidates consistently polling at over double digits for the general special primary, with various candidates leading in the survey matchups.
A late-July Emerson College poll that surveyed 500 likely voters had Norman leading the candidate field, polling at 22% support, while Nordone trailed with 19%, Fry sat at 12%, and Sanford rested at 11%. Another late July poll from the prominent GOP pollster Trafalgar Group had Nordone in the lead by a significant margin with 27% support, while Norman and Fry notched an even second with 17.4% each, and Sanford sat at 15.1%. The Trafalgar Group surveyed 989 likely voters.
The most recent survey in the race was a late July co/efficient poll that also had Nordone taking the lead at 30%, with the other candidates trailing much further behind, as Fry held 16% support, Norman held 15% support, and Sanford held 9%. That poll had surveyed 857 voters.
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Nordone, Fry, and Norman are all running largely MAGA-style campaigns, running on their support for Trump’s agenda. Sanford, on the other hand, is sticking to his conservative fiscal-hawk reputation, which drew Trump’s ire when he served in the U.S. House.
In the most recent debate, the candidates talked everything from the filibuster to the war in Iran to the SAVE America Act, as Nordone differentiated herself from her brother’s stance on the filibuster, pledging to support Trump’s wishes to remove the procedural rule.