▶ Watch Video: Darline Graham sworn in as U.S. senator, replacing her late brother Lindsey
With the November race to succeed Lindsey Graham in the Senate still wide-open, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina suggested the late senator’s interim replacement — his sister, Darline Graham — could be one candidate.
“Darline has so far been off to a remarkable start,” Scott told CBS News when asked about the possibility of her running for her brother’s seat. “Why not her?”
Scott — who chairs the Senate GOP’s powerful fundraising arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee — made the comments at a press conference to honor Lindsey Graham, whose sudden death last weekend has shaken the Senate. The late senator had served in the upper chamber since 2003 and was among its most powerful members, owing partly to his strong relationship with President Trump.
Earlier, Scott had praised Darline Graham for having “grace and grit” when South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her Monday as her brother’s replacement for the remainder of his current term, which ends in January.
“I was, like, wow. A Graham is a Graham is a Graham,” Scott said about her demeanor during “one of the hardest days in her life.”
She isn’t the first person to take over a political office once held by a family member: Rep. Debbie Dingell holds the Michigan U.S. House seat that was held for decades by her husband, John, and former Sen. Jean Carnahan was appointed to a Missouri U.S. Senate seat in 2001 after her husband died shortly before winning an election.
Darline Graham has not publicly indicated that she is interested in running for a full six-year term. In a news conference earlier this week, she promised to “work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother.”
A crowded roster of South Carolina Republicans has been floated as possible contenders in next month’s special GOP primary for the Senate seat, with no clear frontrunner so far. Candidates will have one week to file for the primary, from July 21 to July 28.
Several members of the state’s House delegation have weighed a run, though some top Republicans have expressed interest in fielding candidates who are not part of the state’s congressional delegation.
Scott said “members of Congress and former Congress members” have called him to express their interest in a run, and “there certainly seems to be a long list of folks that want to get involved.”
Mr. Trump has not publicly thrown his support behind any of the candidates. His endorsement could be a significant factor in a state that the president won by nearly 18 points in 2024.
The president has privately conveyed interest in backing Rep. Russell Fry, according to several sources familiar with the discussions. The Wall Street Journal was first to report.
“The president’s enthusiasm around Russell Fry probably is no surprise to anybody, but I have not seen and heard of an endorsement yet coming out of the White House,” Scott told CBS News.
Fry first gained national attention in 2022, when he defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump has praised Fry, a close ally, as a “very, very talented person” and an “outstanding” congressman in an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, saying: “He’s doing much better than the person who preceded him.” The president called Fry “somebody you could watch out for” when asked about possible Graham successors, though he added there are “probably some others.”
Scott on Wednesday raised former Rep. Trey Gowdy as a possible option, saying he has “affinity” for Gowdy and thinks “he’d be an amazing senator for the state of South Carolina.”
Gowdy, who drew nationwide attention for chairing a committee that investigated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s response to the U.S. embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya, left the House in 2019 and now hosts a show on Fox News. He has not said whether he will run.
Republican Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace have said publicly they are considering runs for Senate, after the two lawmakers unsuccessfully ran in the GOP primary for South Carolina governor. Norman told reporters he asked Mr. Trump for his endorsement, but the president told him “it’s too early.” Mace could face challenges due to her occasionally uneven relationship with Mr. Trump.
Reps. Joe Wilson and William Timmons — both viewed as potential contenders for the Senate seat —have each ruled out a run. The two members of South Carolina’s House delegation said separately that they decided against a senatorial run citing the House Republicans’ narrow majority in a midterm year.
“At a time when every seat matters, protecting our Republican majority is more important than any individual’s political future,” Timmons wrote in a social media post.
Outside of Congress, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette has been inundated with calls and texts urging her to run, two GOP sources told CBS News earlier this week. Evette ran in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, but lost to Attorney General Alan Wilson in a runoff last month. Mr. Trump initially backed her campaign for governor, but he later jointly endorsed Evette and Wilson.
Evette lost to Wilson by double digits — a result that has caused critics in the South Carolina Republican Party and in Washington to question her ability to compete against Democrat Annie Andrews, a physician who won her primary on June 9.
The GOP nominee is likely to enter the race with a significant advantage. In 2020, Lindsey Graham easily won his seat by 10 points against his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, who later went on to chair the Democratic National Committee.