Darline Graham won South Carolina's Republican nomination for the United States Senate on Tuesday, taking 193,396 votes to Ralph Norman's 175,327 in near-final returns — 52.45 percent, a margin of 18,069, all 46 counties reporting.
Trump earned that. Graham had led the first round by 8.1 points and never trailed a public poll, then collapsed to a 47.9–47.8 tie on the eve of the runoff. He endorsed her, rallied for her at Myrtle Beach, and she finished 4.9 points clear. CNN called it "a much-needed South Carolina win."
The rest sits in the South Carolina Election Commission's own system, unpublished.
Lindsey Graham took 264,091 votes in the June 9 primary. He died in July. That same day, Annie Andrews won the Democratic nomination with 226,075 votes. On Tuesday, his sister won the Republican nomination with 193,396.
Darline Graham won the Republican nomination with 32,679 fewer votes than the Democrat collected winning hers, and 70,695 fewer than her brother collected in June. Republican Senate votes in South Carolina fell 20.7 percent in eleven weeks. About 12 percent of registered voters cast one.
Runoffs draw fewer people than primaries. Republicans still turned out fewer than the Democrats did in June.
Trump had asked for the opposite. At Myrtle Beach on August 21 he told the crowd what he wanted: "What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot."
