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by WILL FOLKS
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During the recently concluded Republican primary for governor in South Carolina, one of the most effective lines of attack against establishment lieutenant governor Pamela Evette was her prior embrace of discredited diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Evette was branded a “DEI queen,” and the allegation hung like a millstone around her candidacy from the moment it entered the public consciousness.
Not even an endorsement from U.S. president Donald Trump was enough to save her…
As we approach another day of decision for Palmetto State GOP voters, could history be repeating itself?
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Interim U.S. senator Darline Graham Nordone is locked in an incredibly close race against fifth district congressman Ralph Norman for the GOP nomination for the seat previously held by Nordone’s late brother, Lindsey Graham. Nordone and Norman will face voters this Tuesday (August 25, 2026).
Multiple polls shared with FITSNews show an incredibly close race – but a late-breaking video of Nordone touting DEI policies during her tenure at the helm of the S.C. Commission for the Blind (SCCB) is having a devastating impact on her campaign.
The clip features Nordone touting the same DEI programs she is now seeking to distance herself from on the campaign trail.
“We got a diversity and inclusion committee,” Nordone, wearing a mask, stated in the 2021 clip. “I want to be a leader in state agencies when it comes to that.”
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? Newly uncovered video of Darline Graham discussing the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the South Carolina Commission for the Blind—an initiative she led while serving as its director.
— Kelly McCarty (@KellyLMcCarty) August 22, 2026
Darline: We got a diversity and inclusion committee. I want to be a leader in state… pic.twitter.com/LT0Z2Td0LI
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Budget documents (.pdf) published by commission that same year confirmed Nordone’s agency used “affirmative action data” in planning its recruitment efforts, and that “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were promoted by conducting yearly training for all employees.”
That’s right: Nordone’s agency used tax dollars to foist compulsory woke propaganda on every single agency employee, government-subsidized indoctrination which “would not have been possible without the agency’s DEI committee, (which) is responsible for these initiatives.”
Nordone also made sure DEI policies – and affirmative action hiring – were fully implemented by the agency during her tenure as its leader.
In 2023, SCCB bragged on accountability reports (.pdf) that its workforce was “the most diverse it has been in nearly a decade,” while the following year it boasted in another report (.pdf) that its equal opportunity rating was “the highest it has been in the history of the agency.”
And while the word “diversity” was scrubbed from SCCB’s most recent report (.pdf), the agency nonetheless bragged at having “increased its equal employment opportunity goal attainment rate” to the point it now ranked “eleventh out of seventy-nine state agencies” on this indicator.
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RELATED | RALPH NORMAN FOR U.S. SENATE
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The real problem for Nordone isn”t the fact she embraced these left-of-center ideologies during her tenure as a government bureaucrat – it’s that she now wants GOP voters to take her seriously as a DEI opponent.
Just this past Friday (August 21, 2026) in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Nordone appeared at a rally held on her behalf by Trump. During her remarks to the crowd, she expressly repudiated the “woke agenda” – and DEI policies in particular – drawing cheers from the MAGA faithful.
“I oppose DEI,” Nordone said at the Trump rally. “I oppose the woke agenda.”
Does she, though?
Like Evette before her, Nordone’s real issue isn’t her support for these policies, it’s her hypocrisy… which is now on full display at a make-or-break moment in her nascent political career.
Can Nordone fool enough GOP primary voters to prevail over Norman? We’ll find out soon…
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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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