In Reply to: Tuesday's just as bad* posted by mh on September 01, 2026 at 09:29:28
President Donald Trump’s backing of Darline Graham in the South Carolina’s special Republican primary could be the latest in a string of Pyrrhic victories for the maniac in chief, with a new poll finding her trailing Democratic nominee Annie Andrews.
Trump endorsed Graham to replace her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, even though her only qualification for the job is that her brother held the seat for decades. She quickly proved she was not ready for prime time, stumbling through a debate in which she admitted that “national security is not my thing.” And her effort to clean up that gaffe only made it worse.
Still, Trump’s endorsement and the $827,000 his super PAC spent helped her defeat GOP Rep. Ralph Norman in a runoff last week.
However, Graham won the primary runoff by under 5 points, and that may have been the first sign of her weakness in November’s general election.
A poll released Tuesday from the Andrews campaign shows her leading Graham by 3 percentage points, 42% to 39%, with 6% going to a third-party candidate and another 13% undecided. That is a problematic result for Graham in a state Trump himself won by nearly 18 points in 2024.
According to the internal poll, which was conducted shortly before the GOP primary runoff, just 28% of the state’s likely voters have a favorable view of Graham, while 50% have an unfavorable view.
Worse for Graham, Norman refused on Monday to endorse her bid, telling reporters that it is “shocking” Trump’s allies spent $800,000 in the primary for Graham and said that he would tell undecided voters in the race to “vote for Ralph Norman.”