The New Republic71%
South Carolina Governor Picks Lindsey Graham’s Sister to Finish Term 51%
By Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling58%
7/13/2026, 8:15:52 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Framing Effect, and Recency Bias, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 28.6% saturation with 226 hits. Analysis detected 1,522 faulty-reasoning hits from 791 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 51.2% and a BS Rank of 51% (10,050 of 20,518 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 51.00% of the article peer group.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nordone Monday to finish out the Senate term of her belated brother, Senator Lindsey Graham.
“Today under the law, it’s my duty—and honor—to name someone to serve and replace this irresistible man, this irreplaceable man, this extraordinary man, for the remainder of his term,” McMaster said.
“Lindsey took care of his little sister, in years long departed.
It’s my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham, to finish his work for him now.”
Graham passed away on Saturday night following what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.”
The next morning, a preliminary medical report found that Graham had died from a tear in his aorta due to the hardening of his arteries.
McMaster, addressing Nordone, recalled how she broke into tears when he initially asked her to serve in the wake of her brother’s death.
“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him,” Nordone said at a press conference.
“I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way.”
Donald Trump recommended Nordone in a post on social media Monday morning, claiming that her appointment “would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!”
McMaster is singularly responsible for tapping Graham’s replacement, as outlined by South Carolina law.
Graham was up for reelection in November, having just won his state’s Republican primary last month.
South Carolina Republicans have until mid-August to pick his replacement for the ballot.
Nordone does not bring any legislative experience to the role.
Instead, the bulk of her experience has been related to disability services.
According to Nordone’s LinkedIn, she worked for years as the director of public information for the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department, and currently serves as a commissioner for the South Carolina Commission for the Blind.
Nonetheless, other prominent South Carolinians have come out in support of Nordone’s appointment following Trump’s announcement.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott wrote on X that, after speaking with Nordone, he believes “there is no one better who understands Lindsey’s love for family, our state, and our country.”
Representative Joe Wilson told the New York Post that he has known Nordone “for years and she’s a constituent of mine.”
“I have faith in Gov.
McMaster that he will make the right decision, but I would support the president’s recommendation,” Wilson told the Post .
McMaster’s appointment hands Nordone the power to serve out the remainder of Graham’s term, through January 3, 2027.
It’s been just two days since Graham passed, but already a number of South Carolina Republicans have expressed interest in running for a full term in the seat, including Representatives Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman.
Nordone will have to settle into her new position quickly, as the coming week will require her to weigh in on several critical votes, including the National Defense Authorization Act—the preeminent funding bill for the military—and the confirmation of Todd Blanche to run the Justice Department.
The pace won’t let up through the rest of the summer, either: other major upcoming Senate duties include confirmation hearings for Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence, Erica Schwartz for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Keith Sonderling for secretary of Labor, and David Cummins to lead the Transportation Security Administration.
She will also likely take over her brother’s duties on the Senate Budget Committee, of which Graham was the chair, as a new reconciliation bill moves through Congress.
Other Senate priorities include a new Russia sanctions bill, an attempt to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and yet another effort to push through Trump’s voter suppression bill, the SAVE America Act.
Nordone and Graham shared a close relationship.
In a 2015 interview with The New York Times , Nordone described Graham—nine years her elder—as “kind of like a brother, a father, and a mother rolled into one.”
“Our mom got cancer and passed away, and about a year and a half later, we lost our dad too.
I was just a kid,” Nordone recalled in a May ad spot for Graham’s campaign.
“He’s always been there for me, no matter what,” she said at the time.
In a CNN interview Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that after speaking to McMaster and Nordone, he believed her appointment would make “a lot of sense.”
“I’ll let the governor make an announcement,” he told the network, adding that “I think in many respects it would be a way of extending Lindsey’s legacy here and certainly something that—if that’s what they decide to end up doing—I think there’d be a lot of support for it.”
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