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by WILL FOLKS
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Interim U.S. senator Darline Graham Nordone – sister of the late Lindsey Graham – is the new frontrunner in the race to fill the seat vacated by her brother’s recent death, according to a new survey conducted by Resonance Media Strategies.
Nordone, 62, of Central, S.C. formally filed to seek her late brother’s seat on Friday (June 24, 2026), vowing to “carry on Lindsey’s legacy.” Her newly launched and heavily subsidized bid was backed by 20.8% of likely voters in next month’s special Republican primary election, according to the Resonance poll. That put her just ahead of outgoing fifth district congressman Ralph Norman, who was supported by 16.9% of respondents.
No other candidate (or prospective candidate) in the crowded August 11, 2026 special election received more than 10% support in the survey, which was conducted earlier this week by veteran South Carolina political strategist Rick Quinn – son of the late, legendary strategist Richard Quinn.
Others polled by Quinn (.pdf) included lieutenant governor Pamela Evette (9.6%), seventh district congressman Russell Fry (7.2%), Upstate businessman Mark Lynch (7.2%), former S.C. governor Mark Sanford (7.1%), first district congresswoman Nancy Mace (2.8%) and Walterboro, S.C. attorney Duke Buckner (0.9%).
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Evette has yet to indicate whether she will campaign for this seat, while Mace endorsed Norman after opting not to run. The others surveyed are all actively campaigning to fill Graham’s spot on the ballot.
Originally regarded as Graham’s temporary placeholder when governor Henry McMaster appointed her to serve the remaining six months of his term, Nordone was quickly tapped for a full, six-year term. Embraced by many of the same neoconservative forces that spent decades propping up her brother, she also received a preemptive endorsement from U.S. president Donald Trump – although Trump’s imprimatur isn’t quite what it used to be in the Palmetto State.
Per the new survey, Nordone was viewed very favorably by 19.8% of likely special primary voters and somewhat favorably by 16.5% – while 4.7% viewed her somewhat unfavorably and 9.8% viewed her very unfavorably. While seemingly positive results on the surface, those are higher-than-expected negatives for a political newcomer, according to Quinn.
According to a polling memo (.pdf) prepared by the veteran strategist, widespread public awareness of Nordone’s appointment (and Trump’s endorsement of her bid to fill the seat on a permanent basis) “has not converted.” Specifically, 17.8% of the projected GOP electorate said they had never heard of Nordone – while 31.3% had formed “no opinion” of her.
“Roughly half of this electorate knows the appointment happened without having decided anything about the person who received it,” Quinn said.
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“The President’s endorsement has opened the door,” he added. “Nordone is far from walking through it.”
As for Norman, the wealthy Rock Hill, S.C. developer enjoys “the strongest favorability in the field,” according to Quinn, with 17.8% of likely GOP primary voters having a very favorable opinion of him and 26.9% viewing him “somewhat favorably.” By contrast, only 8.1% of respondents viewed Norman “somewhat unfavorably” compared to 10.8% who viewed him “very unfavorably.”
Those are tremendously impressive numbers considering Norman was on the receiving end of a barrage of negative attacks from diminutive Lowcountry multi-millionaire Rom Reddy during the recently concluded governor’s race – which saw Norman finish in third place.
“Norman competed in the June gubernatorial primary and emerged from it with his statewide recognition intact,” Quinn concluded.
Norman is also best positioned among the candidates in the likely event this race advances to a runoff election, per Quinn’s poll. In Palmetto State partisan primaries, if no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first ballot, the top two candidates advance to a head-to-head runoff election two weeks later.
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For the latest coverage of @LindseyGrahamSC’s sudden passing – and the chaotic special election to replace him – keep it tuned to https://t.co/SC67KLDyVD. pic.twitter.com/hX0ro0ZuEt
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) July 22, 2026
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A runoff election for this seat would take place on August 25, 2026.
“(Norman) leads the field as a second choice,” Quinn noted, adding the die-hard Republican voters who would likely show up to cast ballots in a low-turnout runoff election is a mix that favors the veteran congressman.
Quinn said Fry, the second-term congressman from Surfside Beach, S.C., was “the least defined candidate tested.” Trump’s initial pick for the seat, he appears to have been outmaneuvered in the D.C.-based machinations that resulted in Trump shifting gears and backing Nordone.
Nonetheless, Fry leads the field in his home district with the support of 29% of likely voters – and was the second choice of another 14.7% of respondents. Were Evette to opt against running, those numbers would likely climb even higher.
“A consolidated regional base paired with a largely blank statewide slate gives Fry more theoretical room to grow than anyone else in this field,” Quinn noted, although given the special election’s compressed time frame he added that the clock was working against the 41-year-old attorney.
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“Whether he can cover that ground before August 11 is a question of resources rather than of standing,” Quinn concluded.
Fry has also reportedly angered the White House by running for the U.S. Senate seat despite Trump coming out in support of another candidate.
“Russell promised to support whomever the president chose to endorse and then ran anyways,” a source close to Trump told FITSNews. “It’s tough to campaign as the MAGA candidate when you lie to the president.”
Did Fry lie to Trump, though? Or was it the other way around?
One candidate Trump clearly loathes above all the others, though, is Sanford – who mounted a Quixotic bid against him for the GOP nomination in 2020. South Carolina voters seemed to share Trump’s disdain for their former two-term governor, with 11.7% of them having a somewhat unfavorable view of the scandal-scarred politician and a whopping 25.8% having a very unfavorable impression, per Quinn’s poll. Conversely, only 16.7% had a somewhat favorable view of Sanford whereas 6.5% viewed him “very favorably.”
“Sanford has appeared on South Carolina ballots for more than two decades, and 82.6% of Republican primary voters have heard of him,” Quinn said. “The recognition runs against him.”
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RELATED | MARK SANFORD JUMPS IN U.S. SENATE RACE
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Filing for this special election closes next Tuesday (July 28, 2026) at 12:00 p.m. EDT. As noted, the special primary will be held just two weeks later, on August 11 – with a head-to-head runoff election on tap for August 25 between the top two vote-getters in the likely event no candidate is able to secure a majority on the first ballot.
Candidates for the seat have been invited to appear next Saturday (August 1, 2026) in Lexington, S.C. at a forum sponsored by GOP gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson, as well as a televised debate the following Tuesday (August 3, 2026).
The winner of the special GOP primary will face Democrat Annie Andrews, Libertarian Kasie Whitener, Constitution Party candidate Mark Hackett and several other independent candidates in the November 3, 2026 general election.
As this author has noted, the GOP primary is for all the marbles. Democrats have not won a statewide election in South Carolina since 2006 – and haven’t won an election for U.S. Senate since 1998. In other words, the winner of this upcoming GOP special election is all but assured of being the next junior senator from South Carolina – joining Tim Scott in the chamber on January 3, 2027.
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ABOUT THIS SURVEY…
In a comprehensive recap of the June partisan primary elections published earlier this month, this reporter took particular note of Quinn and his polling work – particularly his use of live calls placed to landlines and cell phones owned by like South Carolina Republican voters.
“According to the veteran strategist, polls of live respondents are superior to text-to-web surveys – and increasingly utilized hybrid surveys which include significant portions of text-to-web responses,” I noted.
As results poured in, there was no disputing that fact…
“Quinn wound up being right on the nose,” I added.
For this U.S. Senate survey, Quinn surveyed 600 likely special primary voters on Tuesday (July 21, 2026) using live operators and a mix of cell phones and landlines. His survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 4%.
To view the results for yourself, click on the memo below…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
What a damn clown show. Typical SC
There is more to democracy than you think.
It should not be only by replacing any dissatisfying elected ones when their terms expire or recalling them where state law allows it. Democracy should also be about the constituents EVOLVING their representatives during their terms of office.
U.S. Senator Darline Graham Nordone should NOT be thought of, or referred to, as merely “Interim U.S. Senator.” She is a U.S. Senator equal to the other 99, about a third of whom are running for re-election as U.S. Senator Darline Graham Nordone is. Period. Ein Punkt. Un point c’est tout.
Mais un point n’est pas tout ici.
My late father always said a true parent wants the child to be better than the parent.
The late Lindsey Graham was not merely LIKE a parent to Darline, Lindsey actually officially adopted Darline as his daughter.
As a true parent, though he likely never envisioned the scenario unfolding now, Lindsey would want Darline to be a BETTER U.S. Senator than Lindsey was. And that should start NOW – well, after the internment at the latest.
Darline would best honor her adoptive father Lindsey, and the biological parents of both of them, by NOT making herself a prisoner of Lindsey’s legacy, policies, friends, or thought process.
And she should liberate herself from the “constituent services” trap that Lindsey inherited from Strom Thurmond, because that trap can quicky degenerate into nepotism, corruption, and cronyism.
After decades in the U.S. Senate, what is Strom Thurmond NATIONALLY remembered for? What NATIONAL legislation bears his name or imprimatur? If you ask anyone from outside South Carolina, they would likely say what they remember of Strom Thurmond, in addition to his strong bladder, is his marrying younger women after having statutorily raped his family’s under-age African American housemaid and fathered with her a bi-racial daughter whom he kept hidden from the public his WHOLE life.
What national legislation bears Lindsey Graham’s name or has his imprimatur?
This is NOT belittling either of the late senators. This is challenging the newly-seated PRESENT U.S. Senator from South Carolina to rise to NATIONAL service without delay.
U.S. Senator Darline is the first female U.S. Senator from South Carolina. She is junior in service, but not in age, to the first African American U.S. Senator from South Carolina.
U.S. Senator Darline will not have immediate seniority on any U.S. Senate Committee; but that should not stop her from proposing likely bipartisan legislation now and, if she takes care of her health, God willing, acquiring seniority later.
To get to “later,” U.S. Senator Darline must ALWAYS think of her own health and the health of her own daughters and their father.
EVERY middle aged and older person with a medical and/or family history of, and/or risk factors for, coronary artery disease MUST get a prescription for sublingual nitroglycerine prn and ALWAYS, I mean always, carry on their person a vial of unexpired, undegraded-by-light-or-heat, NITROGLYCERINE SL “tabletitules” (they ARE tiny) when out doors. For home, every such person MUST, I mean must, have a vial in an unlit, non-humid, corner of every room, and outside every kitchen and bathroom because these rooms are inevitably warm and humid.
And every such person should learn his/her own harbingers of imminent coronary artery problems AND the discipline of not using sublingual nitroglycerine willy-nilly or else it loses its efficacy.
Nitroglycerine, sublingual or otherwise, would NOT have prevented Senator Graham’s aortic dissection IF that was the true cause of his death. BUT it COULD HAVE given him more time for until EMS’ arrival IF it was a coronary artery disease of the native arteries in the native heart like that which took the life of the senator’s father. (“Native” here means the one born with, not transplanted; it does NOT mean “Native American,” although, of course, this advice is good for every race.)
It’s kind of childish to always refer to Reddy as “diminutive,” but I’ll admit that I chuckle every time I read it.
It will be interesting to see how far Nordone can coast on the fumes of sentiment. Hopefully, most voters in SC can pull the lever for who they think will do the best job and not because they have the feelz for the sister of a long-time SC pol. We’re smarter than that, right?
You deserve what you vote for, and man, is SC a glutton for punishment.
Dynasties are never a good thing for the idiots who vote for them.
How many people did they have to call initially to get to 600 Republicans “likely to vote in the primary”…..maybe 2000? Maybe they got a list of Super- Duper Mega MAGA Uber Republicans (TM) on auto-dial. They’re probably all over 60 and watch Fox News 12 hours a day. There is a motivated younger tier of the party that these polsters frequently miss or ignore. I’m really curious just exactly how Darline can launch so high in these polls when we know virtually nothing about her personal politics
Makes me so mad every time I see one of their ads. Her name is *not* Darline Graham.
They must think we’re stupid.
3 x Trump voter