{"id":41635,"date":"2026-08-12T21:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41635"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:13:00","slug":"nrsc-pushes-republicans-to-endorse-darline-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41635","title":{"rendered":"NRSC pushes Republicans to endorse Darline Graham"},"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:\/\/static.politico.com\/d5\/39\/fecb8c9b48209244d30d26592e3f\/u-s-congress-29868.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The National Republican Senatorial Committee is officially throwing its support behind Sen. Darline Graham ahead of the primary runoff \u2014 and it wants other South Carolina Republicans to follow.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, NRSC officials called the primary&#8217;s top finishers who didn&#8217;t make the runoff in South Carolina\u2019s snap Senate primary \u2014 Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.), former Gov. Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch \u2014 and urged them to endorse Sen. Darline Graham, according to two people with knowledge of the outreach, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday morning, NRSC Chair Tim Scott \u2014 South Carolina\u2019s senior senator \u2014 publicly threw his support behind Graham, who secured a first place finish in Tuesday\u2019s primary with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/17\/trump-endorses-darline-graham-for-lindsay-grahams-open-senate-seat-01003457\" target=\"_blank\">early support from President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI voted for Darline in yesterday\u2019s primary, and I\u2019ll vote for her again in the runoff,\u201d Scott said <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/votetimscott\/status\/2087540626136891416\" target=\"_blank\">in a post on social media<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m proud to endorse Darline Graham for the U.S. Senate, and I encourage South Carolina Republicans across our state to join me in voting for her in the runoff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scott hadn&#8217;t publicly endorsed Graham before Wednesday, though he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2026\/08\/06\/mike-johnsons-hopes-and-fears-01026825\" target=\"_blank\">told POLITICO earlier this month<\/a> that Graham \u201cwill win\u201d the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I were going to endorse in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, I wanted to do so with confidence,\u201d he said in his Wednesday morning post. \u201cAfter watching Darline Graham in the Senate and on the campaign trail, I\u2019m confident she\u2019s the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Key to both Graham and Norman\u2019s paths to victory in the two-week runoff sprint will be how quickly they can consolidate their former opponents\u2019 support behind them. A similar push to secure backing from ex-rivals proved decisive for Attorney General Alan Wilson in his governor\u2019s primary runoff win over Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette earlier this summer.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RussellFrySC\/status\/2087362434142990774\" target=\"_blank\">a statement<\/a> conceding the race on Tuesday night, Fry congratulated Graham and Norman but did not throw his support behind either candidate. Sanford similarly declined to endorse in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SaanLk-GYIE\" target=\"_blank\">an interview with a local television station<\/a> but left the possibility on the table.<\/p>\n<p>Noel Fritsch, a spokesperson for Lynch, who also ran against then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, said that the Upstate businessman had already thrown his support behind Norman because the House Republican is \u201cthe only one capable of or interested in draining the swamp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spokespeople for Norman, Graham and Fry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NRSC\u2019s outreach, nor did Sanford respond.<\/p>\n<p>Asked for comment, an NRSC spokesperson pointed to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/votetimscott\/status\/2087540626136891416\" target=\"_blank\">Scott\u2019s social media post<\/a>.<\/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>The National Republican Senatorial Committee is officially throwing its support behind Sen. Darline Graham ahead of the primary runoff \u2014 and it wants other South Carolina Republicans to follow. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, NRSC officials called the primary&#8217;s top finishers who didn&#8217;t make the runoff in South Carolina\u2019s snap Senate primary \u2014 Rep&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/d5\/39\/fecb8c9b48209244d30d26592e3f\/u-s-congress-29868.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41635","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\/41635","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=41635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}