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Darline Graham Stumbles Out Of Gate In Bid For Lindsey's Senate Seat

Zero Rss
3 days 16 hours ago
Darline Graham Stumbles Out Of Gate In Bid For Lindsey's Senate Seat

In recent years, few forces in electoral politics have been as potent as an endorsement from Donald Trump. However, the first polls in the special South Carolina primary race for the Senate seat that was held by the late Lindsey Graham shows his sister Darline is in second place, with half of GOP voters saying her Trump endorsement is irrelevant to them. Graham's campaign faces other headwinds, as many South Carolina Republicans aren't enthusiastic about turning one of their Senate seats into an inheritance for someone with a thin political resume.

After Lindsey Graham suddenly died on July 11, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to be a placeholder for the remainder of her brother's term that ends in January. It was seen as a sentimental and politically-safe gesture, with no expectation that she would enter the race for the six-year term that starts on July 11. Then Trump issued a Truth social post, encouraging her to run and saying she'd have his full endorsement. Three days later, Graham told Fox's Sean Hannity "I'm in."  

Despite her Trump endorsement, Darline Graham, who's never held an elected office, trails House Rep. Ralph Norman

According to an Emerson College poll of the crowded race, Graham is starting in second place. She has the support of only 19% of likely GOP primary voters, while US Rep. Ralph Norman leads the way at 22%. A 73-year-old with a background as a real estate developer, Norman has represented South Carolina's 5th District since 2017, and served in the state legislature for 11 years before that. Graham has never held an elected office. Until this summer, she was commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, and earlier held a communications role in the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department. 

Two other candidates are in the double-digits: US Rep Russell Fry at 12% and former governor and former House representative Mark Sanford at 11%.  Fry, who was reportedly hand-picked by Trump to unseat Republican Tom Rice in 2022, as payback for Rice's vote to impeach Trump over the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot. A quarter of likely voters are still making up their minds. The primary is just a week away, on Tuesday, Aug 11, and the top five candidates debated on Monday evening. Unsurprisingly given her lack of experience discussing national issues, some observers said Graham seemed to lean heavily on her notes. Then, in a moment of spontaneity, Graham oddly suggested that constant noise from data centers is somehow a uniquely leftist and maybe imaginary concern: 

Darline Graham Nordone’s message to South Carolinians is clear: build more data centers, and if you’re concerned about the constant noise they bring, just get over it. pic.twitter.com/qmJOqBacas

— Kelly McCarty (@KellyLMcCarty) August 4, 2026

With no candidate likely to top 50%, expect a run-off of the top two vote-getters on Aug. 25. Assuming Graham makes it to the run-off, our intuition tells us most of those who'd voted for someone other than Graham in the Aug. 11 primary will migrate to the remaining non-Graham option.  

The race is a test of Trump's endorsement power, and only 29% of those polled by Emerson say Trump's endorsement makes them more likely to support a given candidate. 53% say a Trump endorsement doesn't affect them one way or the other -- but 18% say Trump's endorsement makes them less likely to support the endorsee. Not surprisingly, Graham's greatest strength comes from the oldest voters: 30% of voters over age 70 back her. 

Trump's endorsement has ruffled feathers of Republicans in the Palmetto State, including Dorchester County GOP chair CJ Westfall. Speaking in the context of Trump's endorsee for governor having been clobbered in the June primary, Westfall told CNN: 

"The president continues to get bad advice about South Carolina. We certainly empathize with Darline — and even the president, as Lindsey was a really good friend of his — but he’s certainly getting bad advice. We’ve got a lot more exciting options for this seat. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

Other members of the GOP machine in South Carolina are likewise irked by Trump's move, with one state legislator calling it a "backroom deal" and another saying "Trump threw us all a curveball with Darline. That wasn’t expected. It wasn’t exactly welcomed here, either."  

Importantly, only 4% of Republican special election voters think their senator should focus on foreign policy. That's not good news for Darline Graham, as her brother was only known for his foreign policy exploits that centered on collaborating with the State of Israel to support US interventions in the Middle East, and partnering with Ukraine in America's proxy war with Russia. Reading the winds, Darline Graham has already made a point to say she wants to focus more on domestic issues like the cost of living.  

Darline Graham says she’ll be more invested in affordability issues than national security:

“Lindsey was more focused on national security. I know that’s important but I’ll probably be more focused on affordability, what matters to families, the struggling families.” pic.twitter.com/txDfpt6zoy

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 3, 2026 Tyler Durden Tue, 08/04/2026 - 18:10
Tyler Durden

Luka Doncic’s Lakers Slovenia trip leaves one key player behind

NY Post
3 days 16 hours ago
Last week, news broke that Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Luka Doncic would be hosting the entire Lakers roster in Slovenia for a four-day minicamp in August. The training camp would include working out, playing pick-up games, golfing, and exploring Ljubljana, Slovenia’ capital city. This is Doncic’s attempt to help build chemistry and camaraderie, both...
Grant Young

Nick Shirley's New Video Dismantles The Left's Narrative On Ceuta's Migrant Crisis

Zero Rss
3 days 16 hours ago
Nick Shirley's New Video Dismantles The Left's Narrative On Ceuta's Migrant Crisis

Authored by Aaron Hanscom via PJ Media,

Intrepid investigative journalist Nick Shirley isn't one to shrink from danger. He had to escape from Cuba when spies followed him during his trip to the communist island and was forced to hire 24/7 security after exposing Somali fraud in Minneapolis. In his latest video, Shirley once again finds himself in serious peril when a Muslim man chases him through the streets while wielding a knife and threatening to stab him.

AP Photo/Antonio Sempere

The scene of the pursuit was the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta, which has made headlines in recent days after 60,000 illegal migrants poured in from Morocco. Shirley traveled to the autonomous city to report on the current state of the crisis, which has become more manageable after most of the migrants returned to Morocco.

While the knife chase - in which the enraged man yells, "I'm going to stab both of you," at Shirley and Javier Mansilla, the Spanish vigilante who accompanies Shirley in the video, as they run down the street - will likely attract the most attention, there are several other revealing moments I want to highlight that go against the left's preferred narrative of what is occurring in Spain right now.

Spaniards feel unsafe

A woman from Ceuta tells Shirley that she "felt threatened" in the immediate days after the border breach. "I couldn't go outside with my baby. We couldn't go outside. I live up high, but my neighbor lives on the ground floor. And they were scared they were going to break into the house," she says.

Mansilla then expresses the anger that so many Spaniards, like the more than 1,000 who protested in Madrid on Sunday, feel about the country's migrant crisis, which has resulted in horrific crimes against women:

I feel very, very angry. I cannot understand how we let our own women live with fear going, running to their homes with the baby. Like "I don't want to stay in the street. I go home. Thank you. Thank you." I'm not going to allow this. Any Spanish guy shouldn't allow this. If we are men, if we are real men, we should do something right now.

Mansilla continues with a warning to all of Europe: "If we don't wake up now, we will fall. For sure. For sure. This is our moment. Wake up, Europe. Wake up."

There is a political party that is talking about the link between insecure borders and crime: the conservative Vox party, led by Santiago Abascal, who traveled to Ceuta on Sunday. He called what happened an "invasion" and said, "The frontiers of Ceuta and Melilla are the walls of our home and homeland, and they are not being protected by a corrupt and traitorous government."

The media portrays Vox and other European parties opposed to illegal immigration as radical or far-right in order to render their ideas unfit for serious debate. In a similar fashion, the media - like Anne Applebaum in her Atlantic piece, "The Far Right Is Distorting Ceuta" - has tried to dismiss the right's concerns over the crisis in Ceuta while criticizing it for labeling the situation an "invasion." That's why the work of independent journalists like Shirley is so important: it helps uncover the true story.

The illegal migrants sure do love Pedro Sanchez

While lefties like Spanish actor Javier Bardem are busy spreading conspiracy theories about Israel being responsible for Spain's border crisis, the migrants whom Shirley interviews are pretty clear about who motivated them to risk death - at least 72 people died while crossing - to come to Spain: Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Indeed, the most frequently repeated words in the video are "Viva Pedro Sanchez!" or "Long live Pedro Sanchez!" "I love Pedro Sanchez" is also a popular refrain. As I wrote in Elon Musk Was Right: Pedro Sanchez Is a Traitor, "Their gratitude to the Socialist prime minister is due to his mass amnesty plan, which received 1.2 million applications by its June 30, 2026, deadline."

But don't take my word for it. A 17-year-old Moroccan migrant, when asked by Shirley how he expects to leave Ceuta and get to mainland Spain, says matter-of-factly, "Through asylum."

The idea that muslims view Spain as occupied isn't a myth

After another migrant in Shirley's video declares, "This is Morocco," Mansilla explains that Ceuta in fact became part of Spain hundreds of years before Morocco gained its independence in 1956.

Not everyone cares about that fact. As I wrote in a 2007 article for the Strategic Studies Group on the "intifada of Spain's Ceuta":

The autonomous regions of Ceuta and Melilla are seen by Islamists as the opening fronts in their anticipated reconquest of Spain. Last year a North African group calling itself Nadim al-Magrebi warned of a holy war against the infidel Spanish state which has occupied the two cities. Al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman Zawahiri, has called for Islamic land to be reconquered from Al-Andalus to Iraq and compared the Spanish occupation of Ceuta and Melilla to the Russian occupation of Chechnya and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The irony that Spain, perhaps the most antisemitic country in Europe - or at least the one with the most antisemitic leader - should be so hostile to Israel, which, like Spain, faces claims that its territory is occupied, is obvious. That's why I agree with my colleague Scott Pinsker that mockery of Spain's (and the left's) hypocrisy on this issue is warranted.

The left craves chaos

Shirley asks Mansilla why he thinks Spain's politicians are allowing the border crisis to happen.

If they allow this to become the Third World, they know - people in power - they know they will be able to do whatever they want. They will increase their power because a ruler in the Third World is a real ruler. The thing here is that people in power know that if they become this, the Third World, they will increase their power and their money even more. That's the thing because they can control the society in an easier way. I mean, if, if you keep this full of third-worlders, you can do whatever you want if you are in power.

Vox leader Abascal calls Sanchez, who is mired in corruption scandals, a mafia leader and a traitor. Americans should remember how recently their own country had wide-open borders and a president mired in corruption scandals. Victor Davis Hanson explained on Fox News' Hannity why the Biden administration also craved open-borders chaos:

First of all, they are nihilist; they like the chaos. Second, they feel all these people will come, and they cannot assimilate or culturally integrate. They have no skills or background checks. No health care. And that means they will have enormous demands on the state, with bigger government, more taxes, more redistribution. And of course they are a constituency. They will be dependent on the state, and they are going to vote for a socialist ticket. And that is the subtext of both what is going on in Spain and what is going on over the border. And what the socialists have done here.

President Donald Trump has connected the situation in Ceuta to warnings about what the United States could return to if Democrats regain control of the White House and Congress. We should heed that warning as we watch Nick Shirley's video.

Aaron Hanscom is an editor at PJ Media, where he has worked since 2007. He was also an editor at RealClearPolitics.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/04/2026 - 17:50
Tyler Durden

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