Darline Graham Win Runoff Reverses Trump’s Losing Streak

Tuesday night, Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei won their runoff elections in South Carolina and Oklahoma, respectively. These wins helped turn around President Donald Trump’s recent losing streak with candidates he’s endorsed. 

The Washington Post reports that Graham secured the Republican nomination for South Carolina’s Senate seat with 52% of the vote. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham to finish out the term of her deceased brother, Lindsey Graham. Graham will face off against Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in the November election. 

Graham’s primary opponent, Ralph Norman, repeatedly drove home Graham’s lack of political experience throughout his campaign, but that didn’t seem to matter. It’s like Norman didn’t realize he’s in America, where a familiar name and the backing of a weird, powerful white man carry more weight than actually having job experience. 

According to the Hill, Graham’s win gives Democrats a glimmer of hope for the midterms. Despite her inexperience not stopping her from securing the nomination, there’s a belief that it’ll be a solid point of attack in the lead-up to the midterm election. 

“Darline Graham is hilariously unprepared to be a senator, which gives Democrats a tremendous opening to flip the seat. It’ll be a tough fight, but Annie Andrews is great and has a real shot,” said Democratic strategist Mike Nellis in a post on X.

Realistically, Graham is running in a solidly red district, and South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. So while the election might be closer than expected, Graham’s the favorite to win the seat in November. 

Trump’s endorsement also helped Mike Mazzei secure the Republican nomination for Oklahoma governor. According to the New York Times, Mazzei gained Trump’s endorsement after supporting a controversial, $4 billion deal for an aluminum smelter backed by investments from a United Arab Emirates company. 

These wins were much needed for Trump. While he started the primaries strong, successfully ousting Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) from their seats in the spring, candidates he endorsed consistently lost their primaries throughout the summer. While Trump did get some wins this week, the bigger picture shows that Trump’s influence on the Republican Party is getting increasingly shaky. 

Trump’s super PAC has been fairly stingy throughout the primaries, but it shelled out $800,000 to support Graham’s campaign. Trump’s push for Graham and Mazzei may have unintended consequences within his party. 

There’s been some consternation that Trump put all this money and effort into races that will likely go to a Republican regardless of who won the nomination. Politico reports that several Republican strategists are frustrated that Trump hasn’t put this energy into elections in battleground states where Republicans are in danger of losing control. 

“It’s now or never. It’s put up or shut up time, and it’s really time to start to see if he’s going to get serious,” a GOP strategist told Politico. “You’ve got September and October to really move the needle here, and it just doesn’t seem like there’s any sense of urgency, or like we understand that we are down big in some of these states.”

Listen, if Trump wants to sink all his time, money, and energy into safely Republican seats, I say we let him. 

SEE ALSO:

Darline Graham, Ralph Norman Virtually Tied Ahead Of Senate Runoff

Darline Graham Nordone Is The ‘DEI Hire’ Republicans Warned You About

Darline Graham’s Win In South Carolina Runoff Reverses Trump’s Losing Streak was originally published on newsone.com