By admin 
The Republican special primary election to replace the late Lindsey Graham on the U.S. Senate ballot in November has gone negative, particularly between a political group supporting U.S. Sen. Darline Graham and U.S. Rep. Russell Fry.
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During a debate, Fry knocked Graham’s stance on local data center development without saying her name. A super PAC spending more than $1 million supporting Graham is running an AI advertisement that appears to put Fry’s face in a piece of spam. Fry’s campaign has also circulated an advertisement saying Graham, a former state agency leader, gave herself a raise.
As gloves come off in the U.S. Senate race, some claims aren’t entirely accurate, or need additional context.
The fast-paced primary, scheduled for exactly one month after the late Lindsey Graham’s death, has forced candidates to mobilize and get out their message out to voters quickly. They also have to differentiate themselves in a crowded field seeking the rare open nomination to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, a role Lindsey Graham held for nearly a quarter-century.
The special election is Aug. 11. Early voting began Wednesday and ends Friday. Voters who cast a ballot in the June Democratic Party primary cannot participate in the special election.
Fry hits Graham on DEI, voting record, data centers
Fry’s Senate campaign paid for a digital ad criticizing Darline Graham’s service as leader of the state Commission for the Blind, beginning in 2019. The agency helps blind or low-vision South Carolinians.
Graham, the ad claims, “ballooned the size of the state agency,” doubled its spending and “led a culture of diversity and inclusion.” The 30-second also claims she raised her own salary.
An agency leader cannot raise their own pay. In South Carolina, an 11-member committee, including legislative leaders, approve raises for agency leaders. Graham’s salary was raised from $138,000 to $168,080 in late June by the panel.
South Carolina lawmakers increased the general fund allocation from $3.5 million in 2018 to $6.9 million in 2025 for the agency. Total funds, which would include money from the federal government, rose from $12.6 million to more than $57.6 million over the same time period.
Graham said at a stump event in Lexington County on Saturday that she opposed “DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion. Fry’s ad began with “you can’t spell Darline without DEI.”
“If Russell Fry wants to attack Senator Darline for helping people with disabilities find jobs and live independently, that’s a bold fight to pick,” said Abby Zilch, a spokesperson for Graham’s campaign, in a text to The State.
Fry’s campaign also put out two news releases criticizing Graham’s voting history, a campaign contribution she made about three years ago and her position on data centers.
Graham did not vote in the 2016 and 2024 presidential primaries when Donald Trump was running for the nomination, Fry’s campaign wrote in an email and election records back up.
“You cannot ask for someone’s vote when you haven’t bothered to cast your own,” said a Wednesday news release from Fry’s campaign.
But Fry himself also didn’t vote in the Republican presidential preference primary in 2024, though he did in 2016, according to election records obtained by The State. But a spokesperson for Fry’s campaign said the congressman did vote in the Republican presidential primary in 2024. Fry campaigned with Trump for his presidential bid in 2023.
Fry also questioned Graham’s anti-abortion beliefs because she donated $100 to former state Sen. Katrina Shealy’s reelection campaign in 2023. Shealy, a Republican from Lexington County, opposed a near-total ban in the General Assembly.
A spokesperson for Graham’s campaign said the senator supports South Carolina’s ban on most abortions, with exceptions, after a heartbeat is detected and would back up a similar restriction nationwide.
Fry’s campaign knocked Graham’s support for data centers moving into the state, claiming she “supports building more data centers throughout South Carolina regardless of what local communities want or need.”
During a Monday debate in Columbia, Graham said “we need to build data centers here” because China couldn’t “get ahead” in developing new technology.
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“The Democrats, they don’t want the data centers because … they don’t like the noise of the data centers, but we have to remain competitive against China. That’s just a fact,” Graham said Monday. In a news release Tuesday, her campaign said the “decisions about local development belong with the people who actually live there.”
Fry also said the U.S. needed data centers, but it should be up to the local communities. During the Tuesday night debate, which Graham didn’t attend, Fry criticized the senator’s data center response without saying her name.
“We had an earth-shattering moment last night where one of the candidates who’s not on stage said that she wanted unfettered data centers in the state of South Carolina without local control, without local buy-in,” Fry said. “That’s unacceptable.”
PAC-backing Graham launches anti-Fry campaign
In two, 30-second videos and a mailer, a super PAC supporting Graham knocked Fry’s record in the South Carolina House, where he served for seven years, and his dual campaigns for congress this year.
Fry is running for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate simultaneously, which is allowed under election rules. He can not hold both seats at the same time, which could leave the House seat vacant at the beginning of 2027, if he were to win both.
U.S. Rep William Timmons also knocked Fry for running for two seats on social media Wednesday.
“Meanwhile, Russell is running for both his House seat and the open Senate seat, putting our Republican majority at risk,” Timmons said in a post on X. “Now more than ever, we cannot afford to hand this seat to a Democrat and give the Left another vote for its impeachment agenda.”
The “satirical” ads use artificial intelligence and animation to knock Fry, including showing the congressman’s face in what looks like a piece of spam.
The super PAC, Security is Strength, backed Lindsey Graham’s U.S. Senate reelection bids and pivoted to support his younger sister for the special primary, according to news releases. It’s spent more than $1 million on TV, digital and mail ads for Darline Graham, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
A spokesperson for Security is Strength did not respond to calls requesting more information about the campaign, which includes mail and digital and televised ad buys, according to a news release.
The negative ad says Fry voted for “increasing the gas tax by 70%” when he was in the state House. In 2017, Fry supported a bill that incrementally raised the gas tax from 16 cents a gallon to 28 cents over six years, a 75% jump. The gas tax increase paid for infrastructure projects, according to the state Department of Transportation.
South Carolina’s gas tax is lower than several other southeastern states, including North Carolina and Georgia.
The ad and mailer also say Fry voted for “a nearly $1 billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout” and backed “corporate giveaways,” citing a law that cost the federal, state and local government more than $800 million over several years to shore up South Carolina’s unfunded pension system.
The mailer also cited a law that would have given $115 million in state tax breaks to the Carolina Panthers for creating jobs at a planned practice facility in Rock Hill in 2019. Fry voted in favor of the bill. The Panthers practice facility deal fell through in 2022, and no tax credits were awarded because not enough jobs were created, according to previous reporting by The State. The state did spend millions on an interchange for the project in York County.
Both the state pension fix and the Panthers’ tax incentives saw broad support in the House at the time.
When asked for a response to the Security is Strength advertisements, the Fry campaign criticized two other Republican opponents.
Fry, Graham, Upstate businessman Mark Lynch, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford are among the highest polling for the Republican nomination.
Walterboro attorney Duke Buckner, Upstate farmer Danny Ford II, former Myrtle Beach mayor Mark McBride, retired budget analyst Glenda Gail Parker and Lexington County biologist Samuel Shepherd are also running.
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The winner will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November.