Graham replacement hopefuls make final pitches before special election: Iran war, DSA, Flock cams and more

Nine Republican candidates vying to permanently fill late Sen. Lindsey Graham's Senate seat spoke directly to voters Saturday at an event in Florence County, South Carolina, where they addressed the war with Iran, the rising tide of socialism in the Democratic Party and potential privacy concerns around Flock cameras.

The event was hosted by Alan Wilson, South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial nominee, who pitched the gathering a kind of "speed dating," since each candidate was given six minutes to address the crowd.

The special Republican Senate primary is coming up on Aug. 11, which made Saturday's event one of the last chances for the candidates to make their closing arguments to voters.

Here's what they chose to focus on in their elevator pitches.

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Sen. Darline Graham — who was chosen to finish out her brother's term after his death in July — was the last to speak but was quick to tell attendees that she intended to earn their votes.

"I'm not a politician. I never wanted to be a politician. But like Lindsey, I have a servant's heart. I am a hard worker. And yes, I have President Trump's endorsement, but I know I have to earn your votes," she said at the beginning of her speech.

She emphasized that she was not a "DEI" candidate, hyping her experience running the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, a state agency with a $90 million budget and dozens of employees.

"We help blind people and people with disabilities get jobs so that they don't have to rely on the government. How is that DEI?" she said.

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She also made sure to highlight issues she and President Donald Trump agree on, including keeping transgender girls out of female sports, standing with Israel, supporting implementing voter ID through the SAVE Act and ending blanket birthright citizenship.

Graham briefly touched on socialism within the Democratic Party, calling it a problem that has to be stopped. She also described Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as crazy.

Her speech concluded by answering a question about Flock cameras, which can automatically read license plates and are being installed all over the country.

"I need to look into that one, because there's two sides to that story. I know that some people are concerned about privacy and protecting their privacy, and I'm all for protecting the privacy of U.S. citizens. The other side of it is, if there's an emergency situation that an ambulance can be called quicker, and it can save lives," Graham said. "I'm going to be honest. That's a hard one for me. So I want to look into it a little bit more."

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., focused on his frustration with the Senate, calling it the place where "good bills go to die."

He proposed overhauling the Senate's rules to get measures like the SAVE Act passed.

"I will use my, whatever expertise I have to go to the Senate and force the vote, whether it's blowing up the filibuster or having a walking filibuster or getting with the parliamentarian and changing some of these stupid, arcane rules that the Senate has," Norman said.

The Senate filibuster allows a minority of senators to delay or block most legislation, effectively requiring 60 votes to advance a bill and making it harder for a narrow majority to enact its agenda.

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Following his remarks, Norman was asked a question about the extent to which AI data centers should be regulated.

He said the federal government should not have a role but appeared to disagree with Trump's recent full-throated support of bringing data centers to communities around the country.

"Do I think it's bad for the community? Yes. Do I think it hurts the environment? Yes. And I will do whatever I can," Norman said.

The key takeaway from former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride's speech is that he broke away from Trump's position on the war with Iran.

"Y'all, there is something we have to address if we're going to win in November," McBride said. "We need to end the war. We need to end the war now."

"We just have to admit we've lost the war. We've lost this battle," he continued. "Come home and regroup for another day."

He then addressed the crowd, saying: "There's not one of y'all in here who voted for President Trump a year and a half ago because this is where you thought we would be."

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Sam Shepherd, an engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, took the opposite approach to McBride, claiming he is "more conservative than Trump."

Shepherd cast himself as someone who has the skills to fix complex issues within the bureaucracy and the military.

He also took a moment to one-up Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, arguing he had more patents than the Tesla billionaire.

"I've actually authored more patents than Elon Musk. I have 44. I'm asking for you to bring common sense back to the government," Shepherd said.

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., spent much of his speech tying the affordability issues Americans are facing to "onerous regulations."

"We see this on farms. We see this in every manner of our government — regulations strangle us," he said. "You've got to get government out of the way if we're going to solve this affordability crisis."

In response to a question about how he would secure the border if elected, Fry started off by attacking former President Joe Biden's work ethic and praising Trump's.

"You actually have to have a president who's awake for more than four hours a day, right? We went from a president who slept for 20 and was awake for four, to a president who is awake for 20 and sleeps for four," Fry said.

Fry said he would work to close "loopholes Biden used" to grant thousands of Haitians and Nicaraguans asylum in the U.S.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford zeroed in on the ballooning national debt, which is about to reach a staggering $40 trillion.

Sanford, who also twice served as South Carolina congressman, said the debt is incomprehensible and unsustainable.

"We've got a federal government that goes out and spends money it doesn't have, and then it turns around, and it prints money that's not there," Sanford said.

He argued that the growing national debt is inextricably linked to Americans reaching financial and life milestones later in life.

"The average age to buy a house, not that long ago, was 39 years of age, just 15 years ago. Today, that number is 59. In 15 years, it slid back 20 years, which is to say the American dream is becoming that much more difficult — whether it's my four boys or y'all's kids or grandkids out there," Sanford said.

Mark Lynch, a businessman, was another candidate who favored getting rid of the filibuster.

He also said he wouldn’t "take a penny from AIPAC," making him one of the few candidates, along with McBride, to stake out a position at odds with the field’s staunch support for Israel.

Lynch's "number one" issue was his strong opposition to abortion. He talked at length about how he has spent time convincing women not to go through with terminating their pregnancies and how he has lobbied state legislators to toughen abortion restrictions.

Danny Ford II, the son of the championship-winning former head football coach at Clemson University, was the first to address Flock cameras and the potential privacy issues they raise.

He also talked about rapid data center development getting "out of control."

"It's getting pushed straight down our citizens' throats without any say so," he said.

On the issue of data centers, Ford said they need to be sustainable, produce their own power and not "leave a stain on South Carolina."

Glenda Gail Parker, a retired budget analyst with the U.S. Air Force, described herself as a conservative independent who leans Republican, but broke with Trump on energy policy, saying the country needs to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

In response to a question about how she would ensure South Carolina farmers get the assistance they need after natural disasters, Parker said she would work to mitigate "the climate extremes that we are experiencing now."

"And I do that by reducing our consumption of fossil fuels, and lower[ing] the demand for fossil fuels. In fact, today I want to challenge the oil and gas companies," Parker said. "Those companies that are interested in longevity must realize that they are in the energy business, not the oil and gas business. And so I would like to challenge the oil and gas businesses to clean up their image."

She concluded by saying the U.S. needs to pursue solar, wind, geothermal energy and hydropower.