By admin 
With just more than a week before a special election, Republican candidates hoping to replace U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on the November ballot outlined their vision for the role to voters in a stump event.
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Pocketbook issues, including struggles with high gas prices spurred by the war with Iran, Social Security and inflation, was a topic for many Republican contenders as they made brief pitches to potential voters in Lexington County on Saturday.
Lindsey Graham’s sudden death triggered a rare open primary for U.S. Senate in South Carolina. It’s a fast-paced campaign cycle; candidates had just a couple weeks to decide whether to run, and 14 days after filing closed to campaign for the open nomination.
Among those running are U.S. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman, the newly appointed U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, Upstate businessman Mark Lynch and former congressman and governor Mark Sanford.
Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner, retired budget analyst Glenda Gail Parker, former Myrtle Beach Mark McBride and Samuel Shepherd are also running for the open nomination.
The winner of the Republican special primary will compete against Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November.
While campaigning for a fifth term this year, the late Lindsey Graham spoke at length about supporting international allies, justifying the war in Iran and protecting his ability to help confirm conservative U.S. judges.
But several of the frontrunner candidates seeking to replace him on the ballot told voters making life more affordable for South Carolinians was a top issue.
Newly appointed U. Sen. Darline Graham, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, showed her new shoes she said were from the clearance bin to the crowd on Saturday, calling herself a “bargain shopper.”
“I am a hard worker who knows your struggles because I live them too,” Graham said. “Trust me. I’m not an expert on Congress. I don’t claim to be one. I’m an expert on the problems facing families in South Carolina.”
For example, Darline Graham said she dealt with high medical bills while raising daughters with health issues.
Fry said young South Carolinians like him, who did not grow up wealthy, were questioning whether they could afford a first home. He said the election was an opportunity to deliver for future generations.
Sanford spoke at length about tackling the national debt, and Norman agreed, adding Social Security must be protected for his children and grandchildren’s generation.
“It is about something real simple, and that is, ‘how do you afford an American dream?’” Sanford said. “How do we sustain the American Dream?”
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“The cancer in this country is the spending. And Social Security is just a few years away from going completely bankrupt,” Norman said. “Folks…that cannot happen. We cannot leave our grandchildren, our children, to face this mounting debt.”
Parker advocated for “reducing the cost of transportation” to cut inflation. Buckner said he was “going to get the illegals out of the country” and lower demand to make costs like housing more affordable. Lynch said the country couldn’t afford to “be in war.” Shepherd said his “entire premise” is fixing problems related to “affordability, taxes and spending.” McBride said the rising cost of gas caused by the war in Iran is hurting Republicans’ chances of winning in November.
“The national debt is terrible, but if you don’t have the gas to get to the job you hope to have, and you don’t have the money to buy the food, nobody really cares about how bad the national debt is because the clowns in Congress that have been there have gotten it to that point,” McBride said.
Candidates also spoke about other reliable Republican Party issues, including opposing abortion and illegal immigration and supporting voter ID laws pushed by the Trump administration and gun rights. They had five minutes to speak before answering a question prepared by a River Bluff High School student.
Andrews, the Democratic nominee, also said affordability issues would likely define the U.S. Senate election in South Carolina.
“It’s going to be about gas prices, grocery prices and healthcare,” said Andrews, a Lowcountry pediatrician, in an interview Friday.
The special election is Aug. 11, so U.S. Senate hopefuls will only have a matter of days to get South Carolinians out to vote in an end-of-summer special primary and boost their own name ID statewide. They are doing it with little time to fundraise or build campaign apparatuses. If one candidate doesn’t receive more than 50% of votes, a runoff will occur Aug. 25.
It’s already shaping up to be an expensive election.
Some are already running TV ads across the state. Back-to-back televised debates will occur with five of the top polling contenders this week. And others are racing around South Carolina to meet with potential Republican voters in person.
Fry transferred half a million dollars from his House campaign account to a supportive Super PAC, Palmetto Leadership Fund, which will run TV ads, according to FCC records. The congressman raised about $800,000 so far, according to a Friday news release from the campaign.
A Lindsey Graham-aligned Super PAC, Security is Strength, announced it would run TV ads for Darline Graham. The campaign also directly coordinated with the National Republican Senatorial on another advertising effort, a practice first authorized this year by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sanford hasn’t reported any significant fundraising this cycle, but he has more than $1 million in his campaign account and has already gone on air with advertisements, according to FCC records. Norman dumped $400,000 of his own money into his bid and picked up $10,000 from Nikki Haley-aligned PAC, Stand for America.
Before and after the five-minute stump speeches, candidates met and took pictures with more than 200 attendees. In a straw poll, Darline Graham finished first, just edging out Fry.
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