Darline Graham Nordone, who was sworn in as South Carolina's first female senator just five days ago, is apparently already thinking about making the gig permanent. A source familiar with her thinking confirmed to Townhall via USA Journal that she has been having conversations about running in the August special primary for the full six-year term. Those conversations include chats with the White House, which is reportedly listening with interest.
For those who missed the moment, Nordone walked up to her late brother Lindsey Graham's desk in the Senate chamber four days ago and said three words that apparently stopped the room cold: "I got it." If that does not qualify as the most emotionally effective job interview in American political history, it is at least in the top five.
The backstory here is genuinely compelling. Lindsey Graham raised Darline as his own daughter after their parents died when she was just 13. She spent her career working in disability advocacy, earning a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling and doing actual work in the field for decades. This is not someone who spent years lurking in state legislatures waiting for her shot. She was minding her own business in human services until her brother died.
Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina's senior senator, was asked about the possibility and responded with the kind of endorsement that sounds casual but carries weight: "Why not her would be my question." Scott noted that affordability and cost of living will be the top issue in the race, which is the sort of kitchen table argument that someone who has spent their career helping real people might actually be able to make without sounding like they rehearsed it in front of a bathroom mirror.
The field is shaping up to be a packed one regardless. Reps. Russell Fry, Ralph Norman, and Nancy Mace are all reportedly considering jumping in. So this is not going to be a coronation. Cook Political Report rates the seat as solidly Republican, so whoever wins the primary is basically getting fitted for the office.
The question South Carolina Republicans have to answer is whether they want someone who carries the Graham name and the personal story that comes with it, or one of the career politicians who have been eyeing this seat the way a golden retriever eyes a steak on the counter. Nordone brings something nobody else in that field can manufacture, which is the fact that she is literally the continuation of a family legacy that the state just spent a week mourning.
"Lindsey's always been there for me. And now I will be there for him," she said on Monday. By Friday she was apparently still meaning it, which in politics qualifies as remarkable consistency.
Whether she ultimately runs or not, you have to respect someone whose political career began not with ambition but with grief, a promise, and three words at a desk that used to belong to her brother.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
