{"id":4853,"date":"2026-08-18T13:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4853"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:39:39","slug":"lexington-gop-backs-norman-in-runoff-despite-graham-getting-most-votes-in-primary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4853","title":{"rendered":"Lexington GOP backs Norman in runoff, despite Graham getting most votes in primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>With just over a week before the Aug. 25 S.C. special Republican runoff for U.S. Senate, the Lexington County GOP executive committee rejected the first place primary finisher and endorsed U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4852\">Fight over a truck left one man dead and another in prison, SC prosecutor says<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump ahead of the primary, could not get the backing of her home county GOP despite receiving 38.64% votes in Lexington County on Aug. 11. She had the most votes in all but two of the 96 Lexington County precincts.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Lexington GOP executive committee in a 23-6 vote on Monday backed Norman, who received 17.53% of the vote finished in fourth place in Lexington County.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Graham and Norman advanced to the Aug. 25 runoff they were the top two finishers statewide when no candidate received a majority of the support of GOP primary voters to replace the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on the November ballot.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Parties traditionally stay neutral in nomination battles as they are responsible for turning out the base voters during the general election.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrimaries belong to Republican voters. Our job as a county party should be to provide a fair, transparent process and allow Republican voters to hear from the candidates and make their own decisions,\u201d said Dawn Pierce, a member of the Lexington GOP executive committee while speaking against the endorsement.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Endorsing candidates in primaries and runoffs is not new for the Lexington County GOP. It endorsed in races in 2024. The Lexington County Republican Party endorsed Attorney General Alan Wilson ahead of runoff for the nomination for governor.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday evening ahead of the SC GOP Silver Elephant Gala, Graham, the younger sister of Lindsey Graham, said the endorsement was up to the local party, when asked about how much a Lexington County endorsement of Norman would hurt her campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4851\">Lexington GOP backs Norman in runoff, despite Graham getting most votes in primary<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll keep fighting. I keep plugging away, and I\u2019m feeling confident. I think in the end, we\u2019ll win,\u201d Darline Graham said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Among those to support endorsing Norman was outgoing state Rep. Ryan McCabe, a member of the hard-line conservative S.C. House Freedom Caucus who supported Norman during this run for governor.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people who are doing the endorsements in this county party are doing the right thing because they\u2019re not just rubber-stamping the incumbents, and that\u2019s what happens in the party in this state,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cIncumbents are rubber-stamped whether they follow the Republican Party platform or not. Now let\u2019s talk about Ralph Norman. What has Ralph Norman done? Ralph Norman has followed the party platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Lexington County GOP Chairman Mark Weber defended the practice of the county party endorsing in a nomination battle, even if it risks going against the eventual nominee.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have elected representatives from each represented precinct that participate in the vote,\u201d Weber said during an interview. \u201cThe folks that are participating are the ones that get to vote. So it\u2019s not just a popularity contest. It\u2019s people that are active and involved in our party. And if you don\u2019t participate, you don\u2019t get to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur batting average, when we have done endorsements in the last two and a half years, is actually pretty good,\u201d Weber added during the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4849\">Two killed in head-on crash that left another person hospitalized, SC cops say<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Aug. 25 looming, Lexington County GOP endorsed Ralph Norman despite Darline Graham winning 38.64% in the Aug. 11 primary and leading locally in the U.S. Senate race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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Ralph Norman, shown here, will face off in an Aug. 25 GOP runoff in South Carolina after no candidate topped 50% in the special primary. Norman held a watch party at Hobo's in Rock Hill, S.C. 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Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=4853#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lexington GOP backs Norman in runoff, despite Graham getting most votes in primary"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/","name":"US Moving Experts","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d4595f9a47af262eb0de41137cae39b6","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com"],"url":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}