{"id":40135,"date":"2026-08-12T05:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40135"},"modified":"2026-08-12T05:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:34:45","slug":"south-carolina-gop-senate-primary-heads-to-a-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40135","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina GOP Senate primary heads to a runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/D8gskTpke-Z99PTx8aU8Y74_ecc=\/0x0:5168x2907\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/12\/1786494029470.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Darline Graham advanced Tuesday to a runoff in South Carolina&#8217;s crowded Republican Senate primary, extending the fight to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. Her opponent is not yet determined.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The Aug. 25 runoff will almost certainly determine South Carolina&#8217;s next senator.  President Trump endorsed Graham shortly after she formally entered the race.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>The eventual Republican nominee will be heavily favored against Democrat Annie Andrews in November in one of the nation&#8217;s most reliably Republican states. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate election there since 1998.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>No candidate won the majority required to secure the Republican nomination outright, according to AP.<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>The result narrows a sprawling nine-candidate contest to a head-to-head fight among the race&#8217;s three dominant forces.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Graham<\/strong>, 62, has cast herself as a political outsider who can continue her brother&#8217;s constituent-focused work while serving as a reliable vote for Trump&#8217;s agenda.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>As votes were <\/strong>counted Tuesday<strong>, <\/strong>Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) were close behind.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Norman<\/strong>, 73, has argued that Republican voters should judge candidates by their records, presenting himself as a proven conservative rather than a first-time candidate elevated by a famous name.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fry<\/strong>, 41,<strong> <\/strong>has presented himself as a next-generation conservative with a congressional r\u00e9sum\u00e9, an existing campaign organization and experience winning a Trump-aligned Republican primary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue:<\/strong> The runoff will offer a revealing test of Trump&#8217;s influence over a Republican electorate in which nearly every major candidate supports his agenda.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s next:<\/strong> The two finalists have 14 days to consolidate the supporters of the eliminated candidates.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Darline Graham advanced Tuesday to a runoff in South Carolina&#8217;s crowded Republican Senate primary, extending the fight to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. Her opponent is not yet determined. Why it matters: The Aug. 25 runoff will almost certainly determine South Carolina&#8217;s next senator. President Trump endorsed Graham shortly after she formally entered&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/D8gskTpke-Z99PTx8aU8Y74_ecc=\/0x0:5168x2907\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/12\/1786494029470.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}