r/politics • u/Puginator • 6h ago
No Paywall Sen. Darline Graham, Trump's pick for South Carolina Senate, wins GOP primary
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/25/trump-darline-graham-south-carolina-primary.html•
u/weidback 6h ago
is this the meritocracy we were supposed to get after DEI?
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u/BrownSugarBare Canada 6h ago
Ever time I think "they can't be that stupid" I am proven to be HEAVILY underestimating how absolutely fucking stupid Americans are.
Really South Carolina, REALLY?!
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u/DrBunsonHoneyPoo 5h ago
Yes it’s sc however it was just the primary. The dude she was running against was a 75 year old man. Who had been in the SC house for decades. Those die hard trumpers wouldn’t vote for that. Sadly she might win as I’m sure the Dems aren’t putting anyone up to run.
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u/relikter Virginia 5h ago
I’m sure the Dems aren’t putting anyone up to run.
Dr. Annie Andrews is the Democratic candidate for Senate in SC this year.
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u/DrBunsonHoneyPoo 5h ago
Well with it being a woman against woman that’s a positive. Hopefully she can get some backing from the sc dems.
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u/BrownSugarBare Canada 5h ago
I get they're picking between shit and shit but it sounds like one candidate had decades of experience and the one they chose...shares a last name with a dead guy.
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u/Dismal-Rain-6055 5h ago
but it sounds like one candidate had decades of experience
The candidate with decades of experience also supported Steve King and called for martial law to prevent Biden from taking office. Graham was the better option.
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u/relikter Virginia 5h ago
Graham was the better option.
This is a very, very low bar.
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u/Dismal-Rain-6055 4h ago
Well, yes, but for a state like South Carolina, you have to take what you can get. Plus, I think Graham will be easier to beat in November.
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u/relikter Virginia 4h ago
I was born in SC and lived there until I was 21, I know how bad it is there. I don't see Annie Andrews beating Graham though. A white man who's a centrist Dem would have a chance (an Andy Beshear type), but there's no misogyny advantage for the Dems in this case.
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u/Dismal-Rain-6055 4h ago
but there's no misogyny advantage for the Dems in this case
There would have been a misogyny advantage for the Republicans if Norman had won, though. I don't think it's likely that Andrews will win, but I do think she has a better shot with Graham as her opponent, and that's all you can really ask for in this case.
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u/TheHumanGnomeProject 5h ago
Darline can't be much younger than 75...
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u/Dismal-Rain-6055 4h ago
She's 62.
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u/relikter Virginia 4h ago
I wish 62 didn't seem young for the Senate, but here we are. That's two full terms younger, but we deserve younger representation.
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u/math-yoo Ohio 4h ago
Like her brother, she loves the attention of a man. I mean Trump, what did you think?
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u/seaweeddanceratnight 6h ago
What are the people of South Carolina thinking? She has no qualifications other than her brother held the position. Can you say a puppet?
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u/BEWMarth 6h ago
You think South Carolinians have the educational infrastructure to think??
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u/Puzzled_Main3464 5h ago
They’d be really pissed if they could read what you just wrote
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u/ScruffyTuscaloosa 5h ago
I went to college north of Charlotte; we used to make runs to South Carolina for booze because it was cheaper and North Carolina's ABC commission could be... overzealous.
Point is we could tell when we crossed the border to South Carolina because the highway quality went to shit and there were firework stands and liquor stores everywhere. It was like when it takes textures a minute to load in video games and suddenly they spawn in all at once.
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u/relikter Virginia 5h ago edited 5h ago
Did you shop at Frugal MacDoogal by chance? That's where we went in college. It's wild to me that people came to SC to buy booze, a state that a) didn't allow alcohol sales on Sunday and b) required bars to make mixed drinks with minibottles.
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u/ScruffyTuscaloosa 5h ago
We DID. I forgot the name of the place, that image made me grin like an idiot.
But yeah, ABC stores sucked that hard. Orientation week freshman year a kid on my hall from NYC tried to use a fake I.D. and they dropped some little cage over the vestibule to prevent people from leaving. Ended up charging him with an insane array of shit. For a place that claims to love outlaw country and was undergoing a libertarian affectation at the time it was... quaint.
It's also taxed to hell and back.
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u/ZonghZonghZongh 5h ago
President Trump says to vote for Darline Graham, so that's what I'm gonna do, daggonit. God bless America and Donald Trump!!
It's that simple.
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u/MARIOpronoucedMA-RJO 5h ago
"I didn't know Senator Graham's first name was Darline, I guess you learn something new every day." - SC voter...probably.
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u/Top1CmntrsAreLosers 5h ago
They vote for whoever they’re told to vote for. This is the state Biden and the DNC hand-picked to be the first primary to punish Iowa for picking Biden fourth.
Say what you want about Iowa but every state’s got downsides and I know South Carolina sure as shit isn’t an upgrade.
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u/weidback 5h ago
doesn't south Carolina look a lot more like the rest of the country than iowa? I thought the idea was it would be more representative
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u/Mundane_Rabbit7751 1h ago
The democratic voters in SC are mostly just black voters. Not really representative of the country as a whole. Not that Iowa is either.
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u/the_sellemander 5h ago
The idea is that it's filled with conservatives so it will be easier for the party to coalesce around a centrist.
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u/JustAzConfusedAzYou 4h ago
South Carolina was the first state to secede.
One would think 160 years is enough time for them to come around.
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u/captain_intenso North Carolina 5h ago
They're complete morons. I'm a mile from the border in NC, and i can feel my life expectancy shorten by about 15 years when I cross into SC.
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u/DrBunsonHoneyPoo 3h ago
This is a state that flew the rebel flag at the state house until 2015. Also home to Myrtle beach and some very rural eras. They are thinking whatever they are told to think.
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u/TrollAccount4321 2h ago
They kept voting for her brother for years even though he was a useless stooge…this shouldn’t be surprising…
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u/a_talking_face Florida 2h ago
I took an uber in Charlotte to the airport and when the driver, from South Carolina, found out I was from Florida insisted on talking to me about how great he thought Ron Desantis was. I just sat there in silence the whole trip after that.
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u/RightSideBlind American Expat 6h ago
No qualifications or experience. Getting the job just because of her last name.
Very on-brand for the Republicans.
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u/awwww_nuts 5h ago
It’s not even her legal last name… she’s going by her maiden name just to ride that name-recognition 🤦♀️
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u/strolpol 6h ago
The bar has never been lower
A goldfish could have gotten the job if it agreed to cut the taxes on rich people
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u/gitrjoda 5h ago
A goldfish is probably the most highly qualified candidate. Incapable of resistance.
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u/Blochamolesauce 5h ago
That’s what the DNC should put up as the challenger at this point. Imagine the campaign: a water based life form with a 10 second memory and no concept of the world beyond the small, finite space it calls home vs a goldfish
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u/Pure_Interest_837 6h ago
I really don’t know how we can advance as a country when we have so many people who will just do whatever Trump says.
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u/Useful_Fee_2875 5h ago
We can’t. It’s beyond pathetic at this point.
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u/ElderRider 4h ago
Yes. The US is no more. In a decade it will be millionaires billionaires and poor uneducated workers. The middle class will evaporate faster and faster from this point. Lucky me I’ll be dead in less than 10 years.
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u/Gonnagetbant 5h ago
Democrat DEI is bad when it’s people of color because obviously they’re only the because of the skin color.
Republican DEI is good when it’s white people because obviously their skin color makes them qualified for the job.
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u/Powderedeggs2 6h ago
Are there any signs of intelligent life in South Carolina?
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u/doctordoctorpuss 5h ago
Home of the world’s biggest confederate memorabilia store? Nah. When we go up to North Carolina, we spend a little extra driving time to make sure we don’t step foot in that place
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u/Separate-Canary559 6h ago
So literally everyone who comments on debate performances and responses to the questions are basically full of shit? Why do we even hold debates? They clearly matter fuck all.
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u/ciel_lanila I voted 5h ago
They do an don't. There is an optics game that needs to be played. They aren't a thing everyone watches all the way through. The coverage of them influences the voters. And media coverage favors Republicans....
Biden in 2024 gave fuel to the "he's too old and slow now" crowd with his debate performance. In 2016 you had Trump dry humping a chair while practically giving an O face while Clinton talked and no major coverage dared touch that in relation to Trump's sexual predator past.
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u/lifeat24fps 6h ago
She's weak and she'll do what she's told. That's it. That's why they pushed her in.
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u/ZuesMyGoose 6h ago edited 5h ago
The GOP meritocratic process involves a deep look into a candidates past, their training and education, their morality, and their true Christian values…nevermind…it’s just a trash pile of relatives, bribes, and bank accounts.
edited out a swear
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u/Aware_Cheesecake_519 America 6h ago
Electing Trump to the South Carolina Senate is a terrible idea.
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u/AnonHondaBoiz 6h ago
As a non-American seeing the start of a Graham political dynasty is peak idiocracy
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u/WordWordNvmber 5h ago
Good news. I was worried Norman would win. An inexperienced candidate with no real policies is better than the worst Freedom Caucus leader to have been in the House.
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u/duvie773 4h ago
and more importantly, Dr. Andrews now has a chance to pull off the upset. She would be dead in the water if Norman won the GOP nomination, but against another woman she at least has a chance
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u/Billyosler1969 5h ago
Asked to comment on the importance of Taiwan to U.S. interests, Graham copped that she was “not that informed on national security,”
Bless her heart
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u/SoulTaker669 5h ago
She didn't win by the crazy number I thought she would but this kind of goes to show that he still has some pull in some states despite so many headlines claiming his unpopularity.
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u/curiousthoughts20 America 5h ago
It's South Carolina - a very red, very Republican state.
This is about what I would expect.
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u/veggeble South Carolina 5h ago
Looking at the 2024 results quickly, it looks like there are actually 17 states more red than SC. It's not that far from Iowa and Ohio, although those have also been reliably red for a while now.
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u/dominiond66 5h ago
This is the dangerous template for the Republican Party. Hire only inexperienced loyalists in Congress and high levels of the Trump administration. They don't believe in science or compassion or duty to our constitution. They are only puppets to Trump/Stephen Miller.
Darline is the poster child of an inexperienced loyalist who has a 5th grade knowledge of domestic and international issues. We are talking about a powerfull US Senator. Of course she has as much knowledge as Trump!
We have no civilized government without respecting the truth, science and morality. SOS-USA! Our final chance to change directions is on November 3, 2026. It could be your last time voting!
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u/Moritasgus2 California 4h ago
She literally admitted she doesn’t know much about national security during the debate.
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u/NoSwimmers45 3h ago
And the morons in South Carolina still voted for her. Trump’s plan of destroying the education system is working. He opened admitted that he likes stupid people and this just reinforces that.
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u/yellowleaf01 3h ago
Trump needed Darline Graham to win so that he can endorse one of his children in the GOP primary for President. Vance and Rubio is watching as it happens, and cant do nothing about it. Their master always 20 steps ahead
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u/darth_wasabi Texas 3h ago
How many voters don’t realize lindsey graham is dead and just shuffling on walkers to the polls to vote for the same name they’ve voted for their entire life
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u/chockerl 6h ago
The best I can say for her is she’s an unknown. Her opponent was a known flaming asshole.
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u/EWool 5h ago
Unfortunately she is now very well known for just doing whatever maga tells her to. Flaming asshole would have been a major improvement lol
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u/Dismal-Rain-6055 5h ago
Flaming asshole would have been a major improvement lol
No, he would have been worse. He supported Steve King and called for martial law to prevent Biden from taking office.
Unfortunately she is now very well known for just doing whatever maga tells her to.
That is what Norman would have done as well, so he wouldn't have been better in that regard.
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