Darline Graham wins South Carolina GOP nomination to succeed late brother in Senate

South Carolina senator Darline Graham has won the Republican nomination runoff, securing a spot on November's general election ballot for the Senate seat long held by her late brother, Lindsey Graham. The victory is another win for President Donald Trump, who publicly backed the political newcomer.

In Tuesday's runoff, Graham defeated US representative Ralph Norman, taking 52.4% of the vote to his 47.6%, according to the Associated Press, with nearly all ballots counted. The two had emerged as the top finishers from a 10-way primary two weeks earlier.

Lindsey Graham served in the Senate for more than two decades and won the party's primary in June before dying the following month. Days later, his sister Darline Graham was appointed to complete the remainder of his term.

Trump's backing proved decisive

Trump recommended Darline Graham's appointment — she previously led South Carolina's Commission for the Blind — and then urged her to run for a full term, reshaping the Republican scramble for a new nominee. At a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday, Trump asked supporters to vote for Graham as if he himself were on the ballot. His Maga Inc Super Pac spent more than $800,000 supporting her campaign.

Graham will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician from the Charleston area, in November. Andrews faces long odds, as the last Democrat to win statewide office in South Carolina was Jim Rex in 2006.

Separately, amid the run-up to the midterms, the US Supreme Court lifted one of two injunctions blocking the Trump administration's push to restrict mail-in voting. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a sharp dissent, while the NAACP said Republicans were trying to make voting harder because they know they are unpopular.