Lindsey Graham succession fight upended as Trump's chosen successor jumps in

Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., wants to make her role as caretaker for her brother’s seat in the Senate permanent.

Graham, who was appointed to finish off the remainder of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham's term, is officially entering the special election to claim the Republican nomination in South Carolina after a push from President Donald Trump.

Graham, during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, acknowledged the "tremendous amount of pressure" to take over the position and run.

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"I feel like I can do it, I feel an inner peace about it," Graham said. "Will it be difficult? Yes."

When asked if she had made a decision on what she would do, she told Hannity she had.

"I'm in," Graham said.

Her addition to the growing roster of hopefuls to replace the late lawmaker will likely shake up the race less than one day before candidates can begin officially filing to run for the nomination.

So far, Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Russell Fry, R-S.C., and businessman Mark Lynch have all publicly committed to running. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has strongly suggested that she’ll throw her hat into the arena, too.

Meanwhile, Mace and Norman are turning their steel against their colleague, Fry, in what’s shaping up to be a messy, Palmetto State brawl to capture the Republican nomination for Graham’s seat.

Mace argued that should Fry win the nomination, and subsequently the general election, he would vacate his "Republican House seat until next May."

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"That narrows an already razor-thin majority and puts the Speaker's gavel in play," Mace said. "I will never hand Hakeem Jeffries that gift."

"If you're running for two offices at once, you've already told us who you are," she continued. "That's not about politics anymore — that's about power. You're either with the people you serve or you're not."

Fry announced Monday morning that he would enter the race, hours after Norman tossed in his hat, too. Mace has been making public overtures that she wants to jump in, but has so far not made anything official.

A source in Fry’s political orbit told Fox News Digital that the lawmaker has "accomplished more than all the potential candidates combined," having passed three bills in his first four years in Congress.

"This is really about giving voters a choice and not a coronation," they said.

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Still, the conservative duo are going for blood against Fry, arguing that his bid for the seat is purely politically motivated and jeopardizes the House’s already slim majority heading into the midterm elections later this year.

Under South Carolina law, Fry can appear for multiple offices on the ballot. He was unopposed for his primary election for South Carolina’s 7th congressional district, and if he wins the nomination, he’ll be on the ballot twice for both.

Ultimately he’ll have to choose if he wins both, which would trigger another special election to fill his place.

The top two Republicans in the South Carolina Statehouse, South Carolina Senate President Thomas Alexander and South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith, said in a statement that the upcoming special election has "highlighted issues in South Carolina law," and noted that, "In the coming weeks, we intend to address these important issues so that we can provide the process available for our citizens."

That is not a problem for either Mace nor Norman, who both ran and failed to clinch the Republican gubernatorial nomination last month.

"SC Republican voters soundly rejected Nancy and Ralph as recently as last month because conservatives are tired of career politicians who care more about their own social media than getting actual results for families," South Carolina state Sen. JD Chaplin, and a spokesperson for Fry's campaign, told Fox News Digital. 

Norman was less venomous in his take on the situation, and noted on X that he respected Fry and had enjoyed his time serving with him in the House. Still, his candidacy, he argued, "could leave his seat vacant until May 18th."

"This would leave his constituents unrepresented, jeopardize President Trump’s agenda, and put the House at risk of being led by a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries," Norman said. "We can’t let that happen!!"