For the most recent electoral success story at the time, CAW pointed to Julia Letlow, a Republican member of the US House from Louisiana, “who won a special election in 2021 for the seat her husband had been elected to but never held, as he died of COVID-19 complications before his swearing-in”.
Ashcroft went on to be the first attorney general of George W. Bush’s administration. Letlow is still in Congress.
Closest Thing to a Widow
Lindsey Graham was a long-serving Republican US senator from South Carolina. He died unexpectedly of heart problems on 11 July at the age of 71. Graham was a lifelong bachelor with no widow to nominate for the remainder of his term, which would have ended next January. The state’s Republican Governor Henry McMaster did the closest possible thing and appointed Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham Nordone, 62, to the job.
“She loved her brother. He raised her”, said Kimberly Tissot, president of the disability support organization Able South Carolina to the gender relations-focused publication The 19th.
Nor is that much of an exaggeration. Both of the siblings’ parents died within a short period of time in the 1970s. Their mother went first, from cancer, and their father had a heart attack in his sleep.
The older brother took an active role, along with some relatives, in helping his significantly younger sister. When he joined the Air Force, he officially adopted her to ensure she would get survivor’s benefits in the event that something happened to him.
After a career in the Air Force Judge Advocate General's office, Graham went into politics. His sister never sought public office or, by all accounts, even considered it. Instead, she has worked to help those with disabilities get access to the services and training they need, and has led the South Carolina Commission for the Blind since 2019.
Nordone has been at Graham’s side offering support during his entire political career. Many people chalked that up to familial obligation.
“She’s just been there for Lindsey always, but I don’t think she’s really that political”, Nordone’s friend and South Carolina state Senator Katrina Shealy told The 19th.
The general sense of what Republicans in South Carolina had to say about that appointment was that it was a nice gesture. Many believed she would be a perfectly good holder of the seat while the party nominated a candidate to hold it in November’s mid-term elections.
Nordone Wants to Stay
Nordone scrambled those expectations by announcing her candidacy on Monday, nine days after her brother’s death. “I’m in”, she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. She announced that she has the support of President Donald Trump in this, which has swayed several Republican primaries so far this year.
She mentioned institutional support in her announcement interview, chiefly her brother’s staffers in the Senate and the campaign office. But Nordone has managed one show of force as well, on the donor front.
The political action committee (PAC) Security is Strength announced a $900,000 spend to support her in a Thursday statement.
Contributions to campaigns are capped by law, but PACs are a legal workaround. PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in the furtherance of a candidate, so long as they do not coordinate with that candidate’s official campaign apparatus.
An easy way around that is to simply publicly announce what is being funded, which the group duly did. The Security in Strength PAC said it would put “resources behind a paid media operation”, with moves that will include “high-frequency digital advertising on multiple platforms, direct mail campaigns, targeted text messaging, and television advertising”.
The group also telegraphed its message. Nordone will be cast as the champion of the military, veterans, cheaper energy and a secure border.
“South Carolina voters do not have to wonder where Darline Graham stands. She learned from the best”, the PAC stated: “Nine hundred thousand dollars is ready to deploy today, at front doors and on screens across the Palmetto State, and we are just getting started.”
Known and Unknown Nordone
Widows are thought to be a known quantity in American politics. Their agendas are usually tethered to maintaining their husbands’ legacies. Other relative-appointees are harder to gauge.
For instance, Alaska Republican Senator Frank Murkowski was elected governor of his state in 2002. He appointed his daughter Lisa to fill the Senate vacancy. In Congress, she has charted a different course to her father, bucking the party on abortion and other issues. Because of Alaska’s squabbling politics, she eventually ran as an independent candidate who caucuses with the Republicans.
Would Nordone show similar idiosyncrasies if voters elect to send her back to Congress? It is hard to say. As she was pondering whether or not to run for the Senate seat, she wrote an open letter to South Carolinians.
“I am not Lindsey. I have my own way of doing things”, she wrote: “But we were raised with the same values: Work hard each day, trust in the Lord, remember your roots, and never forget who you work for.”
The residual goodwill toward her brother may be enough to carry her into Congress for a full six-year term. That should be long enough for South Carolina’s voters to see what her own way of doing things looks like.
