A supporter-led effort to write in U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman is challenging President Donald Trump’s backing of Sen. Darline Graham, who is tied with Democrat Annie Andrews in a poll ahead of Tuesday’s election.
A New York Times/Siena poll released Oct. 28 found Graham and Andrews tied at 48% each among likely voters.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham on July 13 to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham. The appointment certificate entered the Senate record the next day. Graham defeated Norman in the Aug. 25 Republican runoff.
At an Aug. 24 telerally, Trump said he had asked Graham to run and gave her his “complete and total endorsement.”
South Carolina Public Radio reported that Greenville native Avery Milton organized the Norman write-in effort. The campaign describes itself as independent; its website says Norman had no role in approving or organizing it.
Milton told Al Jazeera that the war in Iran marked a break in his support for Trump. He told the outlet, “He stabbed us in the back during his second term.”
South Carolina Public Radio reported that it could not gauge the campaign’s reach during early voting. It said a large protest vote might benefit Andrews in a close race, though neither Milton nor the outlet expected Norman to win as a write-in candidate.
The South Carolina Election Commission listed 948,592 in-person early ballots through Oct. 30; its tally does not say how voters marked them. State guidance allows voters to enter a write-in name but says a candidate defeated in a party primary may not actively campaign as a write-in.
Al Jazeera cited Alaska’s 2010 Senate race as an uncommon precedent. Official Alaska results list 92,931 write-in votes for Lisa Murkowski under her exact name. South Carolina voters will decide the race Tuesday, Nov. 3.
