STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
South Carolina Republicans have chosen Senator Darline Graham to run for their party in November. She was appointed to fill the Senate seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham, and the election is to establish who has that job next year. Graham defeated Congressman Ralph Norman. South Carolina Public Radio's Luis-Alfredo Garcia is covering this. Good morning.
LUIS-ALFREDO GARCIA, BYLINE: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Glad to have you. What did Darline Graham say about her win?
GARCIA: So in her victory speech, she said she's ready to run and serve a full term.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DARLINE GRAHAM: We lost a giant in Lindsey.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Yeah.
GRAHAM: We've grieved as a family, and we've all grieved together as a state, haven't we? But tonight, you know what? We stand back up the way South Carolinians have done and look forward to the future.
GARCIA: So both Graham and Norman were making stops in different cities leading up to Tuesday, but Graham had the direct backing of President Donald Trump. And, I mean, South Carolina is a solid red state where he's still influential.
INSKEEP: Sure.
GARCIA: So, you know, he supported her appointment initially, and then said at a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday that he encouraged her to run. He straight up said, you know, he called her to run. And that northeast area of South Carolina where the rally was, was key to Graham's victory. The third place candidate in the August 11 special primary election, well, he won eight Republican-heavy counties in that area. And then he endorsed Graham, so she got a lot of those voters. Now she'll face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November.
INSKEEP: So what do South Carolina voters tell you about why they supported her?
GARCIA: Bottom line - I was out at the polls talking to people on Tuesday - a lot of people liked that she was a political outsider, despite her brother's history. Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., spent more than $800,000 on the day before the election for Get Out The Vote robocalls and texts. So a lot of people were hearing about her leading up to Tuesday. And people felt like she stuck to conservative principles important to them, like her anti-abortion stance and being outspoken against illegal immigration. Now, Norman falls along the same lines in those regards.
Nobody I talked to mentioned her recent debate performance where she said she was not that informed on national security after being asked about Taiwan and the South China Sea. A lot of South Carolinians were really focused on issues specifically pertaining to South Carolina. And of course, for some people, it was her connection to Lindsey Graham. He essentially raised her after their parents died, and some voters I talked to really took that story to heart.
INSKEEP: Yeah. So you're telling me, I think, this is bottom line a story of name brands, one of the names being Graham, but the other name being Trump. What does this say about the power of the Trump endorsement?
GARCIA: Well, to get there, we have to go back a couple of months. So the candidate he first backed in the GOP gubernatorial runoff back in June lost. He actually ended up endorsing both candidates for governor shortly before that election. So now with Graham's win, he's taken some credit. He essentially cultivated her campaign. He called her and encouraged her to run.
And we're seeing this in other places too. We're seeing this in Oklahoma. Mike Mazzei, the Republican candidate for governor who Trump backed, he won the primary there by a very close margin and will be on the ballot. He'll face Democratic nominee Oklahoma House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson. And it's a big victory for Trump here in the state, especially when leading up to Tuesday, polls hadn't really been released, and nobody really knew how this race was going to go. It's a big victory for him.
INSKEEP: OK. South Carolina Public Radio's Luis-Alfredo Garcia in Columbia, South Carolina. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
GARCIA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
