United States President Donald Trump is set to travel to South Carolina to boost the campaign of Darline Graham, the sister of his close ally, the late Senator Lindsey Graham. The visit on Wednesday, which will include a rally alongside Graham, comes as the Senate race in deep-red South Carolina has grown uncomfortably close for Republicans. Lindsey Graham, long one of the most hawkish members of the Senate who was an outspoken supporter of the US-Israel war on Iran, had been expected to sail to victory in the November 3 vote.
But his unexpected death in July upended the race. South Carolina’s governor tapped Darline Graham to finish her brother’s term. Trump then made the surprise move of endorsing Graham in a new Republican primary, helping her to claim the party’s nomination.
The president said the endorsement was “in honour of her brother”. In a video message last week, Trump again said Graham had his unconditional support. Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a medical doctor and paediatrician, has seized on Graham’s inexperience and her unorthodox route to the Republican nomination.
Speaking to a local Fox News affiliate before Trump’s rally in Pendleton, South Carolina, Andrews pointed to Graham’s lacklustre debate performance, including one instance where she said she was “not that informed on national security”. On the debate stage, it was really clear,” Andrews said. Graham, meanwhile, has called Andrews “the most radical liberal that’s ever run for state office in South Carolina”.
Polls have shown Graham leading by about 2.7 percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average. Trump carried the state by 18 percentage points in 2024. Trump’s visit comes after the president issued an executive order waiving most sanctions and tariffs on Russia, established by a law named after Lindsey Graham and passed with bipartisan support in 2026.
The move prompted a tempered rebuke from Darline Graham. The executive order on sanctions has been part of a wider Trump administration shift in its approach to ending the war with Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2024. Trump and his allies have heaped pressure on Ukraine, framing its leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the main impediment to peace.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
