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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is questioning whether President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham — his sister, Darline Graham — is even eligible to appear on South Carolina’s Republican primary ballot.
“She has no record and I’m not even sure that she’s qualified to be on the ballot,” Mace told Fox News Digital.
Her comments come as Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., announced on Fox News that she will enter next month’s special primary election to run for a full term in the Senate.
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Newly-appointed U.S. interim Senator Darline Graham Nordone, right, with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., left, speaks during a press conference announcing her appointment to fill the vacancy created by the passing of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, at the statehouse Monday, July 13, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford) ( )
“Obviously I feel for her and losing Lindsey Graham — the entire state is mourning right now,” Mace said of Graham.
“It’s admirable and honorable what she’s done to take the wings for the next six months, but she has no records and I am not even sure she’s qualified to be on the ballot,” she repeated.
Mace isn’t alone in her concerns over Graham’s qualifications to serve a full-term. Local South Carolina GOP Chairman CJ Westfall said in a statement that he is pursuing a formal determination of whether Graham meets the party’s qualifications to run.
He said the request followed conversations with local voters about Graham’s qualifications, including concerns over her lack of political experience and her voting record — concerns Mace shares.
“It’s not clear that she’s voted in enough Republican primary elections to be on the ballot,” Mace said when asked why Graham may not be qualified.
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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., departs the U.S. Capitol after a series of House votes on funding for Homeland Security and a War Powers resolution on Iran on March 5, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“By new state election laws of July of this year, you had to have voted in the last two of the last three Republican primaries and it’s not clear she has.”
Mace has instead chosen to endorse Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., for the Senate seat.
“He’s a tried-and-true conservative,” Mace said. “He doesn’t bend, he does not back down, and he has a 100% conservative voting record.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a conservative into the U.S. Senate in this seat. We’re not going to have this opportunity again in a while.”
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Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Mace herself was widely considered a likely candidate to enter the race for the South Carolina Senate seat, but she announced Monday that she would not run.
Trump, regardless of any doubts of qualifications, threw in his endorsement for Graham to seek a full-term seat, posting to Truth Social after a White House meeting with her, “run, Darline, run.”
While Trump’s endorsements have oftentimes been the winners of their respective primaries, Mace isn’t sold on the idea that Trump’s pick will influence South Carolina voters heavily.
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“I think that you’ll see that South Carolina voters seem to be a little more… they’re conservative, but they’re also independent,” Mace said. “Independent conservatives.”
“They vote the way that they wanna vote, not because someone told them to. And I think you’ll see that in this race.”