MAGA Inc. spends $827,000 to back Darline Graham on final day of South Carolina GOP Senate runoff

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The final day of South Carolina’s Republican U.S. Senate runoff campaign on Monday came with a major cash infusion for Sen. Darline Graham from MAGA Inc., the super PAC that supports President Donald Trump and aligned Republicans but has spent little thus far on the president’s midterm candidate picks.

The spend of nearly $830,000 came as Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman wrapped up their compressed campaigns to win South Carolina’s GOP nomination in a special primary to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham on November ballots.

Tuesday’s Senate runoff tests the heft of both a famous political last name and the endorsement of Trump, who is backing Darline Graham and campaigned in the state for her days ahead of the vote.

The matchup pits the well-known Norman — fresh off an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid earlier this summer — against Graham, the late senator’s sister who was thrust into the political spotlight with her interim appointment, then a sprint of a primary campaign.

Trump making final push for Darline Graham

Graham drew early criticism for being in Washington, D.C., for Senate votes instead of on the ground in South Carolina, where many voters said they didn’t know anything about her or her positions. She’s been trying to make up that ground, holding meet and greet events, including two on Monday in Aiken and Seneca, as well as a news conference with Gov. Henry McMaster, who appointed her to the interim post and endorsed Graham on Friday.

Trump on Monday night also planned the second of two tele-rallies for Graham.

The president, long closely allied with Lindsey Graham, has done more to promote Darline Graham’s candidacy than he has for others he’s endorsed in this year’s midterms. Trump encouraged her to run and traveled to South Carolina on Friday for a rally with Graham in Myrtle Beach.

Before several thousand people — some of whom said they came mostly to see the president, not his chosen candidate — Trump urged “every South Carolina patriot to go to the polls and vote for Darline Graham.”

When McMaster appointed Graham last month, a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly about it said the governor had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.

Asked Monday why he had waited until late last week to endorse Graham, McMaster said simply that “I thought that was the right time.”

Also Monday, the super political action committee that supports Trump and other Republicans infused Graham’s campaign with more than $827,000, according to federal campaign finance filings. The money, aimed at text message blasts and phone calls to voters, marks a major investment for the group that up until now has been largely silent in this year’s contests.

As of the end of last month, the group had more than $400 million in its coffers, and it’s been unclear how much MAGA Inc. was willing to spend on this year’s races — even as Senate Republican leaders have urged Trump’s team, both privately and publicly, to pick up the tab for candidates the president has endorsed in the 2026 midterms.

Norman crisscrossing the state to make his final campaign case

On Monday, Norman planned two events with pastors, ending his runoff campaign in Greenville. The most populous in the state, Greenville County typically contributes the most votes in statewide Republican primaries.

It’s also bucked against the front-runners in recent GOP contests. Norman also carried Greenville County in the gubernatorial primary earlier this year — and it was one of the only counties Lindsey Graham lost in his final election, this year’s original June primary.

Norman has decried the role of super PAC spending against him in the runoff campaign, accusing Graham of being funded by special interests who are pushing their own agenda through her candidacy. The wealthy developer has made large personal transfers into his campaign coffers and promoted his voting record and business acumen.

Norman has frequently reminded voters of his history supporting the president’s policies in Congress. He’s also portrayed his opponent as inexperienced for a six-year shot at the Senate job, saying in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press that the “Washington elite” who funded Graham were “dictating the terms and giving her the political answers” in her campaign.

At a town hall Friday, Norman leaned into his experience in elected politics and in the business world, reiterating his campaign trail slight against Graham, a political newcomer, that the Senate isn’t a place to get “training on the job.”

“We’ve had a short runway, and I’m so glad I did this,” Norman told voters at a town hall in Anderson. “You have to know it. You have to be in it, and that’s one of the advantages that I have.”

The winner of Tuesday’s GOP runoff will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November. No Democrat has won a statewide-elected office in South Carolina in two decades.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP