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<\/a><\/p>\nSen. Darline Graham, A South Carolina Republican, arrives for the Senate Judiciary Committee vote to move the nomination of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche out of committee on Tuesday, Aug 4, 2026. (Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There is little doubt that the winner will be supportive of Israel, but it remains to be seen just how high the Jewish state will rank among the candidate\u2019s priorities. Matching Graham\u2019s level of foreign policy experience and focus on the Middle East, a region he often visited, would be difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf other people are quite that hawkish, then they just don\u2019t have the platform and power to say it. Whereas, he did,\u201d Scott Huffmon, a professor of political science at South Carolina\u2019s Winthrop University, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. <\/p>\n
Graham died suddenly on July 11 from an aortic dissection, at 71 years old, after serving 23 years in the Senate and eight in the U.S. House. He was a longstanding member of the Senate\u2019s Armed Services and Budget committees and had traveled to Israel about a dozen times since Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. <\/p>\n
Having grown up in the Cold War era, Graham was an anti-Soviet and then anti-Russia conservative who was always solidly pro-Israel, said Huffmon, who also directs Winthrop\u2019s Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe viewed peace in the Middle East through the lens of a protected Israel,\u201d Huffmon said, noting that Graham made Israel a priority issue. \u201cIt would be really tough for a new person to have the traction to do that, even if they believe just as strongly as the late Senator Graham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a few days after his death, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, appointed the late senator\u2019s younger sister, Darline Graham, to complete the rest of his term. Despite having only limited policy experience, such as previously serving on the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, she quickly earned President Trump\u2019s endorsement and announced she would be running in Tuesday\u2019s special primary.<\/p>\n
Graham will be up against nine fellow Republicans, with her biggest challengers including Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, who are both currently serving in Congress, as well as Mark Sanford and Mark Lynch. <\/p>\n
A recent Emerson College poll showed Graham and Norman vying for the lead, with 19% and 22% support, respectively, while Fry had 12%. Sanford is a former congressman and South Carolina governor, while Lynch is a businessman. <\/p>\n
Among Norman\u2019s top priorities is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE America Act), a bill he co-sponsored in the U.S. House that would require voters to provide identification at the polls \u2013 and a top priority for Trump. He also has pledged to reduce spending, secure the U.S. borders, fund law enforcement, protect gun ownership rights, restrict women\u2019s sports to assigned females at birth, support veterans and strengthen the military.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be slow to send America\u2019s sons and daughters into harm\u2019s way, but when we do, they deserve every advantage to accomplish the mission and return home safely,\u201d the campaign stated.<\/p>\n
Darline Graham revealed her platforms less than a week ago on Fox News, noting that the SAVE America Act is her first co-sponsored bill in the U.S. Senate. Her other policies were similar to those on Norman\u2019s list, though she also expressed specific support for the right to life, She slams diversity, equity and inclusion, and two bugbears of the left: progressive leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Anthony Fauci, the former top federal health official Republicans say bungled the COVID pandemic. Graham earned the backing of the Republican Jewish Coalition shortly after announcing her candidacy. <\/p>\n
Fry\u2019s campaign also promotes the Trump-branded \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda, focusing on securing borders, ending the fentanyl crisis, lowering costs, advocating for farmers and rural communities, honoring veterans, confronting China\u2019s communist party and advancing U.S. oil, gas and nuclear energy development.<\/p>\n
Sanford\u2019s top priority, as highlighted in bold and red on his website, is the \u201cnation\u2019s debt and the spending that drives it.\u201d His campaign focuses on reversing the \u201cfinancial tipping point\u201d that has threatened the country\u2019s \u201cability to sustain the American Dream.\u201d Sanford, whose governorship was plagued with scandals, briefly ran against Trump in the 2020 presidential primaries.<\/p>\n
Lynch\u2019s focuses are fairly similar to those of Norman, Graham and Fry, with stronger language on foreign policy that demands a \u201clethal military focused on defending the homeland,\u201d an end to \u201cAmerican involvement in open-ended foreign conflicts\u201d and formal congressional authorization for new military engagements. <\/p>\n
Israel has not been an active issue in the campaign. <\/p>\n
Although Graham earned Trump\u2019s endorsement, Huffmon said that supporters of Norman and Fry also see them as candidates who \u201cwill help push Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d Norman has a strong track record and statewide recognition as a fiscal conservative, while Fry has \u201csolid conservative bona fides\u201d but less notability, according to Huffmon. <\/p>\n
In his own past polls of South Carolina Republicans, Huffmon said he found that the most conservative voters tended to have high approval ratings for Trump, McMaster and former governor Nikki Haley, but they saw Lindsey Graham as \u201ctoo moderate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who want the Trump agenda to succeed the most were not always Graham\u2019s biggest fan,\u201d he added. \u201cSo they might not automatically say, \u2018Well, Graham\u2019s sister is the natural candidate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, predicted that \u201cshe will be fairly close to her brother on most issues,\u201d noting that this is in some ways \u201cher feature as a candidate.\u201d But like Huffmon, he stressed that \u201cLindsey Graham was not that popular,\u201d even if he was expected to win reelection.<\/p>\n
That said, Huffmon stressed that South Carolina \u201cis still a conservative, Trump supporting state\u201d and that \u201chis endorsement still matters a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper agreed. \u201cI think you\u2019d rather have it than not have it, but it\u2019s no longer a guarantee for victory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Emerson poll \u2014 which included about 500 GOP primary voters \u2014 also asked respondents what issues the next senator of South Carolina should prioritize. Just 3.5% chose foreign policy, while 59.5% picked the economy, 18.7% immigration, 8.3% healthcare and 10% \u201csomething else.\u201d On the other hand, 56.1% said they \u201cstrongly support\u201d U.S. military action in Iran, with only 14.6% voicing strong opposition. <\/p>\n
Huffmon said that when a poll asks for a voter\u2019s top priority, the respondent\u2019s second most important issue could be \u201cmillimeters behind,\u201d but they can only name one. Voters right now might feel like a strong foreign policy approach \u201cis necessary but not sufficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Huffmon characterized Israel as \u201ca threshold issue,\u201d meaning that voters would view anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian sentiments as disqualifying factors, but the issue is not as high priority in comparison to other concerns, like the economy. <\/p>\n
Cooper agreed. \u201cGOP voters are going to be fairly hawkish, but if you ask any group of people right now, what\u2019s your most important issue, it\u2019s going to be the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n