In a significant victory for former President Donald Trump, Darline Graham, his endorsed candidate, has won the South Carolina Republican Senate runoff. This win comes after a series of primary defeats for Trump-backed candidates, raising questions about his influence within the party. Graham, a political novice appointed to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham, defeated veteran congressman Ralph Norman. Trump heavily invested in the contest, campaigning in the state and urging supporters to vote as though his own name were on the ballot.
The victory is a much-needed boost for Trump, whose endorsed candidates had lost 10 Republican contests this cycle, including six in the previous two weeks. His own approval ratings have also fallen sharply. Despite these setbacks, Trump insisted that his endorsements were "stronger than ever" and dismissed recent losses as acts of loyalty to candidates he knew faced difficult races.
Trump traveled to South Carolina to campaign for Graham and held a telephone rally on the eve of the vote. The Trump-supporting MAGA Inc. political organization also spent more than $827,000 on voter calls and text messages—a rare deployment of its reserves in this year's primaries. "So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot," Trump told supporters at a rally.
Trump's influence is also being tested in Oklahoma, another Republican stronghold, where his favored candidate Mike Mazzei faces state attorney general Gentner Drummond for the party's gubernatorial nomination. Drummond narrowly finished ahead of Mazzei in the first round in June, with both taking around a quarter of the vote. More than $9 million has since been spent on the runoff, according to US media.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Drummond as a "fake Republican," in part because the attorney general opposed a proposed $4 billion aluminum smelter backed by the president, arguing that the project could damage local land and communities. Mazzei, a wealthy former state senator, publicly embraced the project shortly before Trump endorsed him. Victories in either state would help Trump steady a primary record battered by recent defeats in Florida, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Tennessee, among others.
Any further losses would add to questions over whether Republican voters remain as willing to take his direction when Trump himself is not on the ballot. This runoff result, however, suggests that Trump's influence within the party remains significant, at least in certain key states.
