Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) is going to try to win an election to secure a full term in the U.S. Senate, she said July 20, after being named to fill the seat left vacant by her brother’s death.
“I’ve made a decision,” Graham, 62, said on Fox News. “I’m in.”
Lindsey Graham had been the Republican nominee for the seat in the upcoming November election, and his death triggered a special GOP primary to select a different GOP nominee.
Candidates can file to run in the special primary election between July 21 and July 28. The election will be held on the second Tuesday after July 28, or Aug. 11.
If needed, a primary runoff would take place two weeks later.
The general election this year is slated to take place on Nov. 3.
Candidates who say they’re running in the special primary include Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), businessman Mark Lynch, and Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.).
Darline Graham told Fox News that she took the time to consider whether to enter the race.
"I have been praying a lot, talking to my family,” she said. “But with the love of my family, with the support of his staff, I know I’m a hard worker—I learned that from Lindsey, he cared about the people of this state, I’ve worked for almost 30 years for the people of this state—I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes. Absolutely.”
Lindsey Graham had won the Republican primary earlier in the year with 263,895 votes. Lynch came in second with 134,246 votes.
Fry said earlier Monday that he would be “a conservative fighter in the Senate who delivers real results” if he wins the election.
The Democratic nominee is Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and mother who says she's running for the Senate "because families are struggling in ways that we should never accept as normal."