South Carolina Republicans vote today on the senator Trump picked for them. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., with one office on the ballot: the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, appointed six weeks ago, faces Rep. Ralph Norman. Trump endorsed her before she declared, rallied for her in Myrtle Beach on Friday and called into a tele-rally on the eve of the vote. MAGA Inc. pushed roughly $830,000 into her turnout operation on Monday.
Roughly $830,000. To defend an endorsement.
The seat came open when Sen. Lindsey Graham died on July 11 of an aortic tear, a month after he won renomination in the June 9 primary. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham's younger sister on July 13 — Darline Graham Nordone, former commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind — and she was sworn in the next day as the first woman to represent South Carolina in the Senate. Trump had recommended her publicly. He urged her to run on July 17 and promised the endorsement before she announced. Norman announced the day after that.
Norman is not an insurgent. He is a five-term congressman from SC-05, a House Freedom Caucus member who ran for governor this year and finished third on June 9. He asked Trump for the endorsement, did not get it, and says he respects the decision. On policy, nothing separates him from Nordone. Trump is not defending his agenda in South Carolina. He is defending his pick.
Then came the single debate. Asked about Taiwan, Nordone said she was "not that informed on national security." National security, she said, is not her thing.
Nordone led the Aug. 11 special primary with about a third of the vote. Norman took roughly a quarter, ahead of Rep. Russell Fry and former Gov. Mark Sanford. Fry endorsed Nordone after dropping out. Sen. Tim Scott has too. No public poll has tested the runoff since the debate. Nobody can point to anything but prediction markets, which are not polls and not results: Kalshi priced Nordone at about 89 percent on Aug. 17 and about 68 percent on Monday.
