The National Republican Senatorial Committee is officially throwing its support behind Sen. Darline Graham ahead of the primary runoff — and it wants other South Carolina Republicans to follow.
On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, NRSC officials called the primary’s top finishers who didn’t make the runoff in South Carolina’s snap Senate primary — Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.), former Gov. Mark Sanford and businessman Mark Lynch — and urged them to endorse Sen. Darline Graham, according to two people with knowledge of the outreach, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
On Wednesday morning, NRSC Chair Tim Scott — South Carolina’s senior senator — publicly threw his support behind Graham, who secured a first place finish in Tuesday’s primary with early support from President Donald Trump.
“I voted for Darline in yesterday’s primary, and I’ll vote for her again in the runoff,” Scott said in a post on social media. “I’m proud to endorse Darline Graham for the U.S. Senate, and I encourage South Carolina Republicans across our state to join me in voting for her in the runoff.”
Scott hadn’t publicly endorsed Graham before Wednesday, though he told POLITICO earlier this month that Graham “will win” the race.
“If I were going to endorse in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, I wanted to do so with confidence,” he said in his Wednesday morning post. “After watching Darline Graham in the Senate and on the campaign trail, I’m confident she’s the real deal.”
Key to both Graham and Norman’s paths to victory in the two-week runoff sprint will be how quickly they can consolidate their former opponents’ support behind them. A similar push to secure backing from ex-rivals proved decisive for Attorney General Alan Wilson in his governor’s primary runoff win over Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette earlier this summer.
In a statement conceding the race on Tuesday night, Fry congratulated Graham and Norman but did not throw his support behind either candidate. Sanford similarly declined to endorse in an interview with a local television station but left the possibility on the table.
Noel Fritsch, a spokesperson for Lynch, who also ran against then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, said that the Upstate businessman had already thrown his support behind Norman because the House Republican is “the only one capable of or interested in draining the swamp.”
Spokespeople for Norman, Graham and Fry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NRSC’s outreach, nor did Sanford respond.
Asked for comment, an NRSC spokesperson pointed to Scott’s social media post.
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