Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) defeated Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) on Tuesday in the Republican primary runoff for a South Carolina Senate seat. Graham, who was appointed to fill the seat following the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), secured the nomination after receiving an endorsement from Donald Trump. In Oklahoma, the Republican gubernatorial runoff between former state Sen. Mike Mazzei and state Attorney General Gentner Drummond remained too close to call as of late Tuesday night.
The primary results follow a period of mixed outcomes for candidates endorsed by Donald Trump. While Graham was successful in South Carolina, the source reports that several of Trump's gubernatorial and House picks have lost their primaries this cycle, including candidates in Minnesota, Iowa, Georgia, and Wyoming. In the Oklahoma race, Trump backed Mazzei and criticized Drummond as a "fake Republican" after Drummond opposed a Trump-backed aluminum plant and criticized the administration's beef tariffs.
In other Tuesday contests, democratic socialist N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas secured the Democratic nomination for Senate in Oklahoma, defeating centrist Jim Priest. Thomas, a nurse, is scheduled to face Rep. Kevin Hern (R) in November. In Georgia, former Gwinnett County Board of Education chair Everton Blair won a special election runoff for the late Rep. David Scott’s (D) seat, defeating Scott’s daughter, Marcye Scott, by approximately six percentage points with 95 percent of the vote reported.
For residents of South Carolina, the selection of Sen. Darline Graham as the GOP nominee sets the stage for the November general election. Graham's campaign overcame a debate stage incident where she stated she was "not that informed on national security," an admission that led to local speculation regarding her political experience. Despite this, the source reports Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., invested $827,000 into the contest to support her candidacy, representing the group’s largest expenditure of the current election cycle.
The Oklahoma gubernatorial race remains unresolved, leaving voters in that state without a final nominee as of late Tuesday. With over 95 percent of the vote reported, Mazzei led Drummond by less than one percentage point. The eventual winner of this primary will face the general election in a race that has been characterized by personal disputes, including both candidates releasing drug tests following public pressure. A final result in the Oklahoma runoff is expected as the remaining ballots are processed, though a specific completion date was not reported.