‘Run, Darline, run!’: Trump endorses Lindsey Graham’s sister for full Senate term

Donald Trump on Friday said he had encouraged Darline Graham to run for a full six-year term representing South Carolina in the US Senate, after she was sworn in to office earlier this week following the sudden death of her brother, Lindsey Graham.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he spoken to Darline Graham at the White House. “I asked Darline, for the Good of our Nation, to run for the U.S. Senate in the Special Republican Primary,” he wrote.“I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” Trump said. “Darline, who comes from an absolutely incredible family, has been a WINNER all of her life and, should she accept, has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”“RUN, DARLINE, RUN!” the president added.A spokesperson for Darline Graham did not respond to a request for comment. A commissioner at the South Carolina commission for the blind before her appointment to the Senate by the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, after her brother’s death, Graham had not previously held elected office, but had joined her brother at campaign events.Lindsey Graham, a Republican who represented South Carolina since 2003, died last Saturday at the age of 71 of what the District of Columbia medical examiner has preliminarily determined was an aortic dissection. Plans for his funeral were announced earlier on Friday. They include a service in Washington on 28 July and two more in South Carolina on 29 July.A foreign policy hawk and a prolific negotiator who participated in some talks that led to bipartisan breakthroughs and others that ended in deadlock, Graham was a critic of Trump during his own unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, before becoming one of the president’s closest allies in the Senate.He was standing in the November midterm elections for a fifth term representing deep-red South Carolina, and had won his primary last month. The state now plans to hold a special primary to replace him on the ballot on 11 August. Trump’s endorsement of Darline Graham muddles the contest, which had attracted interest from a number of Republican elected officials across South Carolina.Whichever Republican wins the primary will stand against the Democratic Senate nominee, Annie Andrews.