♪ > Welcome to a " This Week in South Carolina " special report I'm Gavin Jackson.

This week we look back at the special U.S.

Senate Republican primary runoff between Senator Darline Graham and Fifth District Congressman Ralph Norman, that culminated Tuesday with Graham edging out a four point win over Norman.

We break it down for you with Republican communications strategist Rob Godfrey.

But first, we take you to the watch parties, including in Rock Hill, where Norman gave his concession speech.

> You know, the President got involved.

He has that right, that's his prerogative.

As I told- [boos] Well... Y'all, his policies are good.

I never understood why he got in this race to beat, you know, but it is what it is.

And, I'll accept it.

We will.

Something good... And I've always said, something good will come out of this.

I don't know what it is, but something good will come out of it.

So I think we'll move on.

I'll help this state in any way I can.

But we could have broken the chain of so many things in a good way.

But I accept it and don't like it, but I accept it.

And I appreciate the people who got involved with us.

And I will forever be grateful for each one of y'all that supported us, you put up signs.

My congressional staff, all the staff, the campaign staff.

[applause] I mean, they put up signs.

Alan, I mean, everybody just did what they... did what they said.

And I will call when I get through this, I'll call and congratulate her.

And as I said earlier, I'm gonna support the Republican.

I'm not supporting a Democrat.

So I will support, her, Darline, as best I can.

[laughter] And as I told her, [indistinct] I told our family, you know, it won't be any tears at all.

Because we knew we did everything we could do.

So, we'll live to fight another day.

I want to see this, I care about South Carolina, I want to see it as free of a state as we can get it.

And who knows what'll come out of all this?

Gavin> The President tweeted on Wednesday that, quote, "Ralph Norman had the look of a good congressman, not great, but good, but ruined his career when he endorsed Nikki Haley," quote.

The President there talking about Norman endorsing his longtime friend Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential election.

But before the results were known and Graham gave her acceptance speech, SCETV's Maayan Schechter spoke with several Republicans about Graham, including Cody Simpson, the Republican nominee for Commissioner of Agriculture.

Maayan> Again as a candidate for office, we've heard so much criticism related to Senator Graham's candidacy over her lack of political experience.

And again, as a candidate for public office, do you think that that criticism is fair?

> I think that she has done a remarkable job in her prior positions.

She was on, the governor actually appointed her to the Workforce Development Board.

She was also the director of the Commission for the Blind.

She did a phenomenal job, I actually worked with her when I was over at Governor McMaster's office.

So I saw her experience firsthand.

She advocated for her folks.

She advocated for the commission.

She literally rebuilt that commission to what it is today.

And she fought for folks, that if you think about it, they may not have had a future, but she saw to it that they got a job and that their families were taken care of.

And I saw that compassion, and I saw that will, because she is a South Carolinian.

And I think that, just as mentioned before, is that President Trump, he wasn't a politician before.

He had never held elected office.

But look at all that he's doing for our country.

Look at what she's already done in 20 days of her being in office.

I mean, she was already, and people don't pick this up, but I think it's important on our farm, She was able to retain all of Senator Lindsey Graham's positions.

What other senators able to do that?

She was able to stay and remain on appropriations, which is be able to deliver for our local communities.

I know of fire stations, police officers.

I know of these places, I've been there, the infrastructure for these old rural community wastewater plants.

Senator Graham was able to deliver that through these communities.

And she has pledged to do that because that is who, that is the heartbeat of America, is out in these rural communities.

And that's why we want to make sure that she stands up for us.

And, that's why she's gonna win tonight.

Gavin> Maayan also spoke with state Senator Jason Elliott from Greenville, a major stronghold for Norman, like the rest of the upstate.

But Norman's reach ended near the fall line of the state, and it was not enough to close the gap, especially after Horry County turned out big for Graham.

> Been in the house and now in the Congress.

Been in government about 20 years.

In South Carolina, we have a tradition with Senator Graham, Senator Thurmond of our senators, U.S.

senators working hard for South Carolina.

You know, we are a growing state, but we're still a relatively small, we're always a small state, a relatively poor state compared to the rest of the country.

We need someone in Washington fighting for us every day.

You know, we've got to bring fiscal restraints, but we gotta, if other people in the country are getting federal resources, we can't have someone in Washington with hands tied behind their back, not working for South Carolina.

I'm confident that Senator Darline Graham will pick up the baton from Senator Lindsey Graham and produce for South Carolina, produce for South Carolina health care, for colleges, universities, for every facet in South Carolina.

Whether it's philanthropic, whether it's education, whether it's business and industry.

We need a US senator who fights for us every day.

And I'm confident that's what we're gonna get if Senator Darline Graham is elected tonight.

Maayan> You were just talking about the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

He obviously not only was a conduit between the legislature and the White House, brought millions in federal dollars to South Carolina.

I mean, you talked a little bit about this, but just how critical for you, is having someone who can still do that in the white House?

And you believe, obviously, that Senator Graham is the person to do that.

Sen.

Elliott> When anybody in South Carolina, whether it was the governor, the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, when they picked up the phone and they called Senator Lindsey Graham, he worked for South Carolina, and he produced.

And it was not like, "No, that's not my job."

It was his job.

And he knew it was his job every day.

Gavin> The Associated Press called the race at 9:01 p.m.

for Graham.

Just over two hours after polls closed, Graham took the stage in front of supporters alongside her family and Governor Henry McMaster and other elected officials.

> South Carolina Republicans, I humbly accept your nomination to serve as the Republican Nominee for the United States Senate, [cheers and applause] from the great state of South Carolina.

[cheers and applause] Thank you, thank you, thank you.

First, I want to thank the good Lord [cheers] who got us through these past few weeks and gave me and my family the strength to keep going.

I continue to miss Lindsey every day, and there is still a big hole in my heart.

But I know he's looking down right now, very proud of everyone in this room.

[applause] I want to thank President Trump for all of his support and his endorsement.

Mr.

President, Lindsey truly loved you and viewed you as one of his closest friends.

I appreciate that bond and appreciate all that you've done for our country.

Our victory would not have been possible without you and we are truly grateful.

[applause] South Carolina is truly Trump country.

[cheers and applause] The past few weeks have been an unbelievably challenging time for our family.

But you know what?

We did it.

[cheers and applause] I have mixed emotions right now.

I'm still feeling grief, heartache, and immense gratitude.

So thank you all again.

During the past several weeks, I've been amazed at the number of people Lindsey personally impacted and the legacy he left behind.

Our state and nation are much better and safer because of him.

Thank you, Lindsey for your service to South Carolina and to this country.

It's just not the same without you here.

[applause] I also want to thank my opponent, Congressman Ralph Norman, and all the other Republican candidates who entered this race.

Running for office is not an easy endeavor, I have learned that the hard way.

I admire and appreciate your willingness to serve.

As South Carolina Republicans, we are part of a large and sometimes disagreeable family of conservative voices, right?

But we know that our family squabbles are minor compared to the major differences we have with our Democratic opponents.

That's right.

If you supported another candidate in this primary, please know that I will work hard to earn your trust and your support.

People are moving to South Carolina in droves to get away from the blue state policies of the Democratic socialist.

<Yes, we are!> Yeah, I remember you.

Massachusetts, right?

[laughter] We cannot and must not allow Democratic socialists to gain a foothold in our conservative state like South Carolina.

[applause] > So how did all this come together for Graham?

I caught up with communications strategist Rob Godfrey, who did communications in the Haley administration and campaign work for Governor Henry McMaster.

He explained it this way.

> Which was that Darline Graham, I think once again, just as she did on primary night, outperformed the expectations of many people who were watching this race.

She absolutely met and exceeded goals across the state.

And in doing so, she won a historic victory and became the first official woman Republican nominee for United States Senate in the history of the state.

And so, that's a tremendous thing.

Now, as we look at the map and we start to look at some of the numbers and some of the margins that came in, there was a lot of talk coming into the race about the fact that Darline Graham needed to run up margins along the coast.

In Russell Fry's Seventh Congressional District, where she had his endorsement.

She needed to also do well in the Lowcountry, which she did.

She did that along the coast, and she also needed to do well in Congressional District One, which she did, the seat that's anchored in Charleston but also has important votes in Dorchester and Berkeley counties.

And she also needed to do as well as she did in the first round of voting in the Midlands, in her home county of Lexington and in Richland County.

And she needed to do, if possible, she needed to hold Ralph Norman to the margins that he ran up in the first round of voting in the upstate, which was always going to be his bread and butter in this race.

And she did that.

We didn't see those margins explode the way they would have needed to.

You know, one person I talked to said, "Look for Greenville and Spartanburg to be at 70 or above for Ralph to win this thing."

And those two counties did not come in above 70% for him.

So I think what, all of that is to say that Senator Graham's team obviously had a plan that worked in combination with the President's endorsement, the President's rally and the President's allies investment in turnout to win on Tuesday night.

They did so.

And I believe that Senator Graham will join Alan Wilson, who won an extraordinary victory in June in that runoff, to lead a strong Republican ticket into the fall that's going to win.

Gavin> Rob, when you look at that and everything you just kind of said and what we're talking about too and this unique race that we've been watching play out over the past couple of weeks.

I mean, she kind of overcame a lot of the concerns I think a lot of people were talking about in the media too.

Being an unknown, not having much experience, especially at the federal level when it comes to politics in the Senate.

And then also, you know, dealing with those national security issues, which we know we saw in the debate.

The only debate that we saw during this, where she had a bit of a flub there.

It seems like the voters were willing to look past that or maybe they didn't like Congressman Norman as much, or they were really aligning with President Trump, or they were listening to Congressman Russell Fry, who threw his support behind Senator Graham, especially in that critical Grand Strand, Pee Dee area that really helped her out.

So was it just a combination of all these things as well as maybe her character, her demeanor, her ability to survive the past 45 days in this pressure cooker?

Rob> Well, there's a lot you just asked about right there, So I can't even remember the list <It's okay> to take apart each one of those things.

But, so I think, you know, the last week of the, of the runoff was in part defined by the answer that she gave on national security and the debate that a lot of eyes were on, perhaps outside of the state.

It made some news on cable news.

But at the end of the day, Senator Graham ended up, if we saw, you know, becoming very comfortable in her skin as a candidate, whether it was connecting directly with voters at some of the events that you went out and covered, or it was talking to the press.

And in those interactions, I believe that she was genuine in talking about many of the issues that they care about, that she also cares about, affordability, you know, having to worry about the cost of living, in the context of you know, trying to make ends meet.

These are issues that she's dealt with that she shared in personal stories, and they are issues that voters are dealing with, amid, you know, an unpopular war in the Middle East.

And so, I don't know that national security issues are issues that people are quite as focused on as they may have been in other times as they are on pocketbook issues, which she was able to talk about, you know, to be conversant in as someone those issues have impacted over the last few years and throughout her life.

As we talked about, she was able to secure, down the stretch, some big name endorsements.

And while I'm one of those people who's skeptical that one singular endorsement is ever able, in this day and age, to mean a direct transfer of political capital from one person to another, a series of endorsements down the stretch as you appear, you know, in the news across the state demonstrates momentum and the wind at your campaign's back.

She was able to do that as candidates, you know, who are gonna be on the ballot, you know, up and down the ballot, stood by her side and as office holders who are popular in, you know, locally, and across the state stood at her side.

She was able to effectively use those, not just to demonstrate momentum, but to help her turn out the vote in their circles of influence.

I think it was a well thought out and well executed campaign strategy on her behalf, and a lot of hard work for someone who's been through not just the grief of losing a brother within the last 45 days or so, but also being thrust into a job that she never thought that she would have, that she has very much found her feet in.

And also, being thrust in front of, you know, groups of people like the press that folks aren't used to dealing with day to day.

I think she's learned to balance that.

I think the sky's the limit for how she continues to grow in that job.

And I think it's, you know, I think we have to give a lot of credit to Senator Graham for precisely what she's been able to accomplish, in a short amount of time.

> And before we move on, Rob, just to talk about the Trump endorsement and how critical you saw that being as well as not just his endorsement like we've seen him do in the past, but him showing up, having that rally in Myrtle Beach with about 4000-plus people there and that, that critical county of Horry county, how critical, again, was this for her to get across the finish line there by about four-plus points?

> You know, it's hard for you or for me to sit here and talk about, you know, how precisely, how critical it was.

But we can look at a few things and see what it was able to accomplish.

The President, as opposed to the other endorsements, we've seen him issue over the course of this election cycle, he not only put his name on the line here through a Truth Social post, he put his political capital on the line by coming to South Carolina to rally for Darline Graham.

And what that rally did was it didn't just motivate the 4000 people or whoever showed up to that rally, to get out and vote, because those folks can sometimes be, you know, out-of-state political tourists.

What it did was it motivated people who were his supporters, who saw through a saturation of the news cycle, you know, the fact that he put his stamp of approval on Darline Graham and we've seen in Republican primaries that when the President does that, he is able to juice people's, juice the turnout in spots where he's popular, just like he has been for the last decade along the Grand Strand.

And even perhaps more important than that, his MAGA Inc., you know, allies, a third party expenditure group that is associated with his agenda, invested almost $1 million, something like 800 or $850,000 in turnout on behalf of the Graham campaign, through text messages, through live calls.

I think all of those, all of that is to say that the President made a difference.

Was it decisive?

I don't think that any of us know whether it was decisive, but it certainly was something that made a difference.

Just like Russell Fry's endorsement made a difference down there.

It all worked in favor and in Darline Graham's favor to help turnout, to help motivate voters along the critical Grand Strand.

We've seen the critical Grand Strand become a place that Republicans, you know, can win elections by driving up numbers cycle after cycle, beginning in probably 2010.

It did that same thing here because it helped offset margins in the upstate that Ralph Norman ran up.

Although I will say it's important to look at some of the numbers in Ralph Norman's own backyard that the Graham team was able to exploit too.

For example, in a county like Lancaster, in the heart of his district, that he's represented, Darline Graham kept it very close there.

I think the last time I checked it last night, now the margin may be a bit different now, it was nearly tied.

Ralph has represented Lancaster County in the, you know, in the Congress for the last decade.

Or, you know, well, how long's he been there?

You know, again, the last ten years or so.

You know, Kershaw County, other places like that, she made some real inroads his district.

She held the line in the Midlands.

Didn't let him, you know, didn't let him, didn't let him make any inroads in her own backyard.

She did the work she needed to do to win this thing.

I think she surprised some people.

She surprised some people pleasantly.

And I think it makes her a strong candidate heading into November.

Gavin> Republican Senator Darline Graham going against Democratic Dr.

Annie Andrews.

Both of them outsiders.

Both of them women.

Both of them with their own different messages going into this, so I'm wondering how you see this race shaping up.

Of course, like we continue to tell people, we are not in North Carolina, we are not in Georgia.

South Carolina remains a very red state, despite what we see play out.

I mean, you can look at previous elections and talk about that as well.

But how do you see things shaping up for November?

Where is this going to be playing out?

Rob> Well, you know, we have to remember this is not just a Senate, a Senate race that's on the ballot here.

There's a slate of constitutional officers.

We have a new party leader in Alan Wilson, who won the Republican nomination for governor, by an extraordinary margin in June.

And so Alan Wilson and Darline Graham will lead a strong Republican ticket in November.

And I don't think there's any reason to believe that this is going to be anything besides one of the stronger Republican tickets we've seen in recent history.

And you're right, South Carolina is not North Carolina, it's not Georgia.

Annie Andrews, is a candidate that the national media, that national Democrats will certainly climb onto and be interested in what kind of inroads she can make because people aren't, because they aren't as familiar with Darline Graham.

But Darline Graham has proven she's gonna do the work that it takes to win.

And at the end of the day, voters are gonna have a real choice between someone who is a conservative Republican and someone who is working in Washington to advance and represent those conservative values that South Carolina voters hold dear.

Or someone who is going to go to join the Democratic caucus and fight alongside Chuck Schumer and fight alongside, you know, the folks that don't represent the state and that have never represented the state.

You know, when it comes to the issues that matter the most.

And so I'm not bullish on Annie Andrew's candidacy.

I'm not going to buy into what, you know, reporters push from out of state about the attractiveness of her candidacy.

And I'm old enough to remember, just like you are, the national craze over the Jaime Harrison candidacy in 2020, even though we both concede it's not a presidential year, the national craze over Jaime Harrison's candidacy, the hundreds of millions of dollars that poured into the state, as people claimed it was gonna be a close race, and it ended up being a double digit blowout on behalf of Senator Graham.

So Annie Andrews is out of step with South Carolina voters.

There are five to seven states that ultimately matter to Democrats where they will be competitive.

And while it may be a tough year in some states for Republicans, I think we all can concede that the party in power always had, you know, faces headwinds.

That map is going to have to expand all the way, the competitive map that's favorable for Democrats would have to expand all the way into Canada for Annie Andrews to be anywhere near a competitive candidate in the state of South Carolina.

Gavin> Thanks, Rob.

We appreciate catching up with you.

For South Carolina ETV, I'm Gavin Jackson.

Be well South Carolina.

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