FITSForum: Who Is Darline Graham?

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by JOE WHITE

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Yesterday, the people of South Carolina went to the polls to choose a Republican nominee for the United States Senate. Nobody received fifty percent of the vote. Darline Graham finished first. Ralph Norman finished second – meaning he and Graham advanced to a GOP runoff election on August 25, 2026.

Two weeks from now, Republican voters (and probably some Democrats) will go back to the polls and make a decision that could determine who represents South Carolina in the United States Senate for the next six years.

Before we make that decision, I think there is one very simple question every voter ought to ask: Who is Darline Graham, and what does she believe?

That should be a pretty easy question to answer about somebody asking us to give her one of the most powerful political offices in America for six years — not just the last two years of the Trump administration.

I’m not sure it is, though…

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Here’s what we know: Darline Graham is Lindsey Graham’s younger sister. Their parents died when she was young, and Lindsey became her legal guardian while serving in the military so she could receive military-dependent benefits.

Graham has spent nearly three decades being a part of the bureaucracy. She worked with Clemson University, the Department of Employment and Workforce and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Since 2019, she headed an agency whose budget doubled over the past seven years.

In other words, she has a long résumé in government.

She has received the endorsement of (and $10,000 donation) from Lisa Murkowski — the Republican in name only who has consistently opposed President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.

Here is what we don’t know nearly as much about: what is her political philosophy? Before a month ago, where was Darline Graham on the great political battles of our time?

Where was she on government spending? Where was she on the national debt? Where was she on abortion and the sanctity of human life? Where was she on the Second Amendment? Where was she on illegal immigration? Where was she on the size and power of government? Where was she when conservatives were fighting the Washington establishment? Where was she when President Trump was being attacked from virtually every direction?

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What government programs has she publicly said should be eliminated? What spending has she fought to reduce? What taxes has she fought to lower? What conservative cause has she put her name, reputation or livelihood on the line to defend?

Maybe there are good answers to those questions – but either way, South Carolina voters deserve to hear them. Because now the decision belongs to us!

There is another thing I believe South Carolina voters need to understand. For the next two weeks, we are going to be bombarded. Your mailbox will fill up. Your television will fill up. Your Facebook feed will fill up. Millions of dollars will probably be spent telling you everything that somebody wants you to believe is wrong with Ralph Norman.

Some of it may come directly from the Graham campaign – some of it may come from political action committees. Some may come from organizations with names you’ve never heard before, and some may come from people whose names you will never know.

When that happens, remember something: negative advertising against Ralph Norman doesn’t answer the question, “who is Darline Graham?”

Those are two completely different questions.

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Ralph Norman has something Darline Graham does not have: a record You can like his record or dislike it. You can agree with every vote he’s cast or disagree with some of them. But there is a record.

He has owned a business. He has served in the South Carolina legislature. He has served in Congress. He has cast thousands of votes. He has taken positions when taking those positions had consequences.

You don’t have to wonder whether Ralph Norman calls himself a fiscal conservative – you can look at what he has actually done. You don’t have to wonder whether he is willing to stand against Republican leadership – he has done it. You don’t have to wonder whether he will take an unpopular position when he believes it is right – because there is a record.

That’s what elections should be about.

Records. Principles. Character. Judgment.

Not last names. Not endorsements. Not television commercials, and certainly not whoever has the biggest pile of money.

I have said throughout this campaign that I don’t want anybody to vote for a candidate simply because President Trump endorsed that candidate. This election is for South Carolina and South Carolinians for six years, not two! I certainly don’t want anybody voting for Ralph Norman simply because Joe White supports him.

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Think for yourself. Do your homework. Ask questions.

Over these next two weeks, whenever you see another commercial telling you something terrible about Ralph Norman, ask yourself whether that commercial answered the most basic question in this entire runoff: who is Darline Graham?

What does she believe? What has she fought for? What has she stood against? When has she demonstrated that she is a fiscal conservative? When has she demonstrated that she is a social conservative? And when has she demonstrated that, when the pressure comes from the Washington establishment, the lobbyists, the consultants and the people writing the big checks, she will stand with the people of South Carolina instead?

Those aren’t unfair questions. They’re the questions we ought to ask anybody who wants to be our United States Senator, because we’re not electing somebody for six weeks.

We’re not electing somebody for six months – we’re electing somebody for six years.

And before I give anybody six years of power in Washington, D.C., I want to know a whole lot more than their last name. Over the next two weeks, South Carolina Republicans have an opportunity to do something increasingly rare in American politics. They can turn off the noise, ignore the political consultants, look past the endorsements and follow the money.

We can study the records, and think for ourselves. And then, on August 25th, we can vote accordingly!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Joe White is a retired businessman and proud member of the S.C. Freedom Caucus who represents South Carolina House District 40 in the General Assembly.

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