The Latest: Darline Graham advances to GOP runoff to replace late Sen. Lindsey Graham
Primary elections are taking place in six U.S. states on Tuesday — Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Sen. Darline Graham advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate. Backed by Trump, Darline Graham moved forward from a 10-way field that included two congressmen and a former governor, despite being a first-time candidate. The winner of the Aug. 25 runoff is expected to claim the U.S. Senate seat over the Democratic nominee.
Minnesota voters will settle a moderate-versus-progressive Democratic U.S. Senate primary between centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. In the race for governor, Mike Lindell, known as the MyPillow Guy, leads a crowded Republican primary with President Donald Trump’s endorsement, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar faces minimal opposition for the Democratic nomination.
And the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor is another high-profile clash between the party’s establishment and progressive wings, as democratic socialist Francesca Hong tries to rise above establishment candidate David Crowley. In a Republican primary for U.S. House, Trump-backed candidate Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, is seeking to win Duffy’s former district.
Here's the latest:
Election night watch parties are usually all about crowd reaction when the news of race calls ripples across a ballroom or restaurant crowd.
As news spread of the AP race call that Sen. Darline Graham would advance to a special Senate GOP primary runoff in two weeks, reporters started scrambling for television live hits.
Graham is nearby watching results with family and campaign staffers. She’s said she expected to be in a runoff and has been treating Tuesday’s primary as just the first iteration of the election balloting.
Lamont defeated state Rep. Josh Elliott as the governor seeks his third term in office.
Lamont, 71, ran a largely comfortable campaign against Elliott, who is 41 and ran to the governor’s political left.
Lamont will face Republican state Sen. Ryan Fazio in the general election in November. Fazio has promised that if elected he would work to lower taxes and assist the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Connecticut hasn’t had a Republican governor since Jodi Rell left office in early 2011.
Darline Graham moved forward in the 10-way contest Tuesday despite her being a political unknown, having been close to her brother’s political orbit but never a candidate herself.
South Carolina spun up a compressed timeline for the special election, with just a one-week filing period, then two weeks until the primary.
Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve out the remaining months of her late brother’s current term. She swiftly notched an endorsement from President Donald Trump, her brother’s congressional ally who encouraged her to enter the race for the nomination to serve a full term.
The winner of the Aug. 25 runoff will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in the general election. No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina in decades.
In-person Election Day voting has ended in Alabama and Connecticut. Comparable past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.
In Alabama’s state primary on May 19, The Associated Press first reported results at 8:28 p.m. ET, or 28 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:54 a.m. ET, with more than 99.9% of total votes counted.
In the 2024 general election in Connecticut, the AP first reported results at 8:12 p.m. ET, or 12 minutes after polls closed. The vote count reached the halfway mark at 12:25 a.m. ET. By 2:06 p.m. ET the day after Election Day, about 90% of the total vote had been counted.
See live results in Alabama and Connecticut.
Nothing is official from Tuesday’s special South Carolina GOP Senate primary, but Sen. Darline Graham has been saying for several days she’s looking forward to an anticipated runoff.
That was reflected in the interim senator’s election night setup. Dozens of reporters gathered in a Columbia studio space, while Graham and supporters gathered nearby in what had been her late brother’s reelection campaign headquarters.
“I expect to be in a runoff in two weeks,” Graham told reporters earlier Tuesday after voting in Lexington. “I feel confident that I will win.”
Other candidates including U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and former Gov. Mark Sanford were having election watch parties. U.S. Rep. Russell Fry didn’t have a formal event planned.
She may be meeting with supporters elsewhere, but the election night event where members of the media were allowed is a small room set up only with a podium, simple backdrop and lots of television cameras.
The space, in the same Columbia strip mall that had housed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s campaign office, is a studio of sorts with photos of various South Carolina notables and politicos on the wall.
One of those is Jaime Harrison, the former Democratic National Committee chairman whose 2020 challenge to Lindsey Graham prompted a record-breaking fundraising race.
In-person Election Day voting has ended in South Carolina and Vermont. Comparable past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.
In South Carolina’s June 9 primary election, The Associated Press first reported results at 7:22 p.m. ET, or 22 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:19 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.
In Vermont’s 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 7:18 p.m. ET, or 18 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:45 p.m. ET with about 87% of total votes counted.
See live results in South Carolina and Vermont.
Three of his plywood signs with “Sanford 4 Senate” spray-painted on them in black joined a handful of regular campaign signs at the Kickin’ Chicken in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Mark Sanford didn’t rent out the venue. His party was crammed into a back corner. There was no open bar or hors d’oeuvres. Many customers eating nearby had no idea what was going on.
Sanford is famously frugal. He wore suits until they got holes and slept on a futon in his U.S. House office in Washington.
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford lived near Charleston for a long time, and voters in the area still have the habit of casting their votes for him.
Randall Stoney voted for him the first time he ran for U.S. House in the early 1990s. Sanford has been on about a dozen ballots since, and Stoney cast another vote for him for U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
“I’ve known him for a good many years. I think he’s done a great job as a public servant,” Stoney said. “He’s fiscally responsible, and he’s not a Trump sycophant.”
Ben LeClerq said Sanford is a “beenya” — someone who has lived in Charleston all his life — not a “comeya” like so many politicians he now sees in South Carolina. LeClerq said that means Sanford is willing to stand up to Republicans when they aren’t acting conservative.
“He’s not a yes-man,” LeClerq said.
Primaries for all seven congressional districts were originally scheduled for May 19, but Republican Gov. Kay Ivey postponed the contests for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prompted a handful of Republican-controlled Southern states to throw out their congressional maps.
Alabama drew new boundaries for those four districts, eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black districts currently represented by Democrats.
An official with the Alabama Democratic Party encouraged Democrats to vote in the Republican primaries to try to get weaker opposition in November congressional races.
Alabama is holding special primaries in four congressional districts after winning court permission to reshape the 2nd Congressional District to be more GOP-leaning. The state tossed out the results of May primaries and scheduled the Tuesday special primaries using the new map.
Tabitha Isner, the former vice chair of the state Democratic Party, said she is encouraging Democrats to take GOP ballots. Alabama does not require primary voters to register by party. Isner made the comments while she was vice chair of the state party, although her term ended Saturday.
“I think strategically we want weaker opposition,” Isner said.
Isner said Republicans started the partisan warfare by cancelling the results of the May primary as they rushed to change congressional maps in the hopes of retaining control of the U.S. House in this year’s midterm elections. She said the move angered many people.
“Of course it’s partisan nonsense, but I’m just following suit,” Isner said.
A state legislator endorsed by Trump is part of a crowded field seeking the Republican nomination for a redrawn congressional seat Republicans hope to flip in November.
State Rep. Rhett Marques is one of six Republicans seeking the GOP nomination in the special primary for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. Hampton Harris, Christian Horn, David Matthews, Joshua McKee and James Richardson also are seeking the nomination.
Trump and Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama endorsed Marques. The winner will challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures in November.
Republicans reshaped Figures’ district to be GOP-leaning after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act. Several states across the South then sought to eliminate congressional districts held by Black Democrats.
That’s according to Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, which showed 590 women have filed to run for House seats in the 206 midterm elections, besting the record of 583 set in 2020.
The boost was largely driven by the number of Democratic women candidates, the center said. Women make up just over one-third of all Democratic candidates for the House, and 19.1% of Republicans.
Overall, 27% of all House candidates in 2026 are women, which is about on par with their representation in Congress this cycle, the center said.
Until her brother’s death, not much was known about Darline Graham, aside from their close relationship and hardscrabble upbringing.
Darline Graham was often at her brother’s side for big political moments, like the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign. The late senator often spoke of their difficulties early in life, and how the death of both parents in swift succession, when Darline was still a teen, bonded them together more tightly.
But Darline Graham has otherwise led a relatively quiet life with her husband and daughters in Lexington, South Carolina. She served in state government for years, working with people with disabilities and as agency head of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind.
A dozen hopefuls initially filed their paperwork, but not everyone was certified by the South Carolina Republican Party due to new party rules.
Here’s a look at the names that made it onto Tuesday’s ballots:
— U.S. Russell Fry, a two-term House member and Trump ally
— Sen. Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and appointed interim senator
— Mark Lynch, a businessman who ran against Lindsey Graham in the initial June primary
— U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus
— Mark Sanford, a former governor who also served two stints in the U.S. House
Other candidates include Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner, Central farmer Danny Ford II, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, retired Air Force officer Glenda Gail Parker, and biomedical engineer and entrepreneur Sam Shepherd.
The immigration enforcement surge in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area this year has added another schism in the primary between establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, which otherwise echoed many of the other left vs. center divides in the Democratic Party this year.
Flanagan has attacked Craig for voting for tighter enforcement soon after Trump returned to office last year. Craig later expressed regret for her decision after the Republican president sent a surge of immigration enforcement officers into Minneapolis.
Craig says her experience winning tough races in Minnesota and fighting in Washington makes her the best person to take on Trump over immigration.
Former Gov. Mark Sanford has been angling for a political comeback.
But Scott Brown said the Senate wasn’t the right move for Sanford, who became the subject of political jokes in 2009 when he went missing for days.
Staffers said Sanford had been on the Appalachian Trail. But he was actually in Argentina with a woman he was having an affair with, and Sanford spent his remaining months in office apologizing to the state.
“I voted for him when he was governor. I might even vote for him as a governor again,” Brown said when asked if Sanford had been a factor in the Senate primary. “I hate it for him.”
Frank Bohn felt more strongly about denying Sanford another chance at serving South Carolina.
“He was terrible as a governor, and he would be terrible as a senator,” said Bohn, who — like Brown — voted for Sen. Darline Graham in Tuesday’s primary.
President Donald Trump endorsed Sen. Darline Graham’s candidacy even before she said she was running in South Carolina’s special GOP Senate primary. But voters who said they were voting for her seemed split over whether the president’s buy-in mattered.
“He’s the greatest president ever as far as I’m concerned,” Frank Bohn said after casting his ballot early last week for Graham. “President Trump means a lot.”
But for fellow early voter Scott Brown, who also said he was a Trump supporter, Graham’s debate performance won his support and meant more than the president’s endorsement.
“It never does,” Brown said when asked if Trump’s endorsement swayed him toward Graham.
Standing in the afternoon heat outside the western Wisconsin fire hall where she’d voted, Sarah Atkins Hoggatt said she wished she could have voted for Hong.
“I embrace her ideology,” she said, ticking off issues like reproductive rights and “Medicare for All.” “I would have wanted to vote for her.”
But she also believes that Hong’s deeply progressive politics, combined with concerns among some voters with democratic socialist candidates, make a November victory much harder for her.
“I voted for someone who I think has a better chance” to beat Tiffany, said Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who sells construction material and drain systems. She voted for Crowley.
“I didn’t vote my heart,” she said.
A former Democratic fundraiser and small business owner is vying to face the Republican representative for a second time in a competitive Wisconsin congressional district.
Rebecca Cooke faces a primary challenge from former Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge. Berge has run an underdog, insurgent campaign against Cooke, who is more well-known and better financed.
Cooke narrowly lost to Van Orden in 2024. She also ran in 2022 but lost in the Democratic primary.
Van Orden is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters but will face a tough reelection bid in the narrowly divided 3rd Congressional District and in a year where the president's approval ratings are low in Wisconsin.
Frank Bohn said an interaction with Sen. Darline Graham in a parking lot was part of what tilted the scales in her favor in terms of his vote in South Carolina’s special Senate primary, when he cast his vote early last week in Horry County.
“She’s not a politician, but she was kin to probably one of the greatest senators ever,” Bohn said, reflecting on his impression of the political newcomer and the service of her brother, the late
Sen. Lindsey Graham. “Being not a politician, and just being able to follow the path of her brother … she could do no harm.”
Susan Bohn said her husband’s recollection helped make up her mind to vote for Darline Graham, too.
“I was going to vote for somebody else, but I changed my mind,” said Susan Bohn, who had been considering U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.
Debra Dowd said she was deciding between two candidates in the South Carolina Senate primary, U.S. Rep. Russell Fry and Sen. Darline Graham, but ended up going with the latter in part because she admired the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s service.
“I just think her brother did a wonderful job for all the time he’s been in the Senate, so I went for her,” Dowd said after casting her ballot for the late senator’s sister in Conway during early voting last week.
It wasn’t all about Lindsey Graham’s service, though. Dowd said she considered President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Darline Graham, as well as her performance earlier this month, in which the candidate voiced strong support for the president’s agenda.
“Watching the debate, I liked her answers,” Dowd said. “Her debate performance was really good.”
The longtime South Carolina Republican lawmaker had been seeking a fifth term when he died suddenly a month ago, and the campaign to pick a new GOP nominee has been a whirlwind.
State law sets out the timeline that officials must follow for a special election when a seat becomes vacant. Candidates had about two weeks to file for the contest, then two weeks to campaign.
Graham’s sister was swiftly appointed to serve out the remaining months of his current term. In a move that surprised many political watchers in the state, Darline Graham also launched a primary bid, something she said came at the urging of President Donald Trump, with whom her late brother had been closely aligned.
Preliminary medical findings note Lindsey Graham died from an aortic tear.
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