Of all the ways Washington usually handles a Senate vacancy, this one might be the most genuinely human thing to happen in that city in years.
President Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning recommending that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appoint Darline Graham Nordone as the state's interim senator, filling the seat left by her late brother Lindsey Graham. As USA Journal reported, McMaster's office announced he would make the formal appointment at 4 p.m. Monday. "This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly," Trump wrote.
Now here is the part of the story that actually makes you feel something, which is rare when we are talking about the United States Senate. Lindsey Graham lost both his parents in rapid succession when he was a young man. His teenage sister Darline had nowhere to go. So Graham did something that most people would consider extraordinary but that he apparently just considered obvious: he legally adopted her and raised her himself. That act of character happened decades before he ever set foot in Washington, and it tells you more about the man than thirty years of Senate floor speeches ever could.
The interim appointment would last only until the term ends in January. Nothing in current reporting suggests Nordone intends to run for a full term, so this is a tribute, not a political career launch. The real action is in the Republican special primary, with candidate filing opening July 28th. Whoever wins that will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November, though the Cook Political Report still rates the seat solidly Republican. South Carolina is not exactly in the habit of sending Democrats to the Senate, and losing Graham does not change the math.
The more pressing concern for the Republican caucus is the hole Graham leaves in the actual machinery of the Senate. He chaired the Budget Committee at a time when the reconciliation process is still lurching forward like a shopping cart with a broken wheel. He was also one of Washington's loudest and most experienced voices on foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East. Replacing that institutional knowledge is not as simple as sliding someone into a leather chair and handing them a gavel. Republican leadership needs to sort both of those vacancies out quickly.
But for one day at least, this is not about committee assignments or primary filing deadlines. It is about a brother who raised his sister when nobody else could, and a sister who may now sit in his chair as a final thank you. Washington does not produce many moments like this. Most of the time it produces moments that make you want to throw your phone into a lake. So when something genuinely decent happens, it is worth pausing to acknowledge it before the next news cycle buries it under fourteen layers of nonsense.
McMaster should make the call. It is the right one.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
