Sen. Darline Graham’s lack of legislative record is threatening her chances in the South Carolina Senate Republican runoff, specifically on an issue that her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, dominated: ending abortion.
“One of the lessons that’s been very clear to pro-life activists and really conservative party activists over the last few months in the U.S. Senate is we need people who have got our backs and are true believers and are going to get things done and advance our agenda,” Kristan Hawkins, president of the prominent anti-abortion group Students for Life Action, told NOTUS.
But, Hawkins added, she has “real concerns about if [Graham is] really going to be a pro-life fighter in Washington, D.C.”
SFLA endorsed Rep. Ralph Norman in the runoff, citing his track record introducing and supporting anti-abortion legislation in the House and his involvement in supporting a lawsuit to defund Planned Parenthood. Hawkins’ group, which was the first national anti-abortion group to weigh in on the race, said Norman signed its candidate pledge committing to back anti-abortion priorities.
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The organization reached out to Graham multiple times while it was deciding which candidate to endorse but received no response.
“We have not heard back from her team. Apparently, she thinks she’s got bigger fish to fry,” Hawkins said.
The endorsement was a blow for Graham, whose standing as a relatively unknown senator has led to a divide within the Republican Party over who to support in the runoff, even with President Donald Trump backing her. She was appointed to the Senate last month after the sudden death of her brother, who was viewed as a reliable anti-abortion vote over his three decades in Congress.
“Lindsey Graham fought for life, and he fought to see the end of abortion,” Hawkins said. “I don’t think the torch has been passed.”
Darline Graham received 33% of the vote in the special Republican primary earlier this month, the most votes among Republicans in the race. However, since she failed to get a majority of the votes, Graham and Norman, who received 25%, will face off in a runoff election next Tuesday.
Now, a rift in the anti-abortion movement is playing out over who its best advocate is.
Just a day after SFLA announced its endorsement, a decision that Hawkins said she knew would be seen as “controversial,” another major anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, backed Graham.
“I used to know Sen. Darline Graham through her brother, the great Senate pro-life champion and my good friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham. But now, I’ve gotten to know her directly for who she is. Her pro-life values are passionate and deeply rooted in principle,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA’s president, said in a statement. “I urge all South Carolinians to vote for her.”
In a press release touting the support, Graham said she was “proud to be the most pro-life candidate in this race.” She bragged about the support in Tuesday’s debate against Norman, saying she was “honored and excited” to be backed by the group.
SBA’s endorsement was not surprising. The organization had a close relationship with Lindsey Graham and had already committed to deploying its grassroots to South Carolina as part of its $80 million planned spending this election cycle.
Hawkins said that last week she spoke to staff from the National Right to Life Committee, another big anti-abortion group that often gets involved in political races, and told them about Graham’s donation to Shealy. The NRLC told NOTUS that it planned to endorse in the race, but it did not reveal which candidate it would be backing nor say when it would be announced.
But previous donations tie Graham to abortion rights supporters.
She accepted a $10,000 donation from Denali Leadership PAC, a leadership PAC affiliated with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), one of only two Republican senators who support abortion rights. In 2020, Graham donated $100 to former Republican South Carolina state Sen. Katrina Shealy, who gained national attention in 2022 when she played a key role in blocking a near-total abortion ban from becoming law in the state.
The Daily Beast, which was the first to report the Shealy donation, said that shortly after the outlet reached out to Graham’s campaign for comment on the story, her office posted on X that the senator was “proud to be pro-life and to stand up for the unborn” and endorsed seven anti-abortion bills in the Senate.
None of the bills she endorsed are abortion bans.
When asked about the post, Hawkins told NOTUS that Graham “didn’t support the Life at Conception Act,” a bill that would grant embryos personhood rights, effectively outlawing abortion. Hawkins added that SFLA had reached out to Graham about potentially having her be the lead Senate sponsor for the “Clean Water for All Life Act,” a bill which would restrict access to abortion pills and has been introduced in the House.
Graham’s campaign declined to respond to NOTUS’ detailed questions, including what her stances on abortion are and whether she agreed with Shealy. The former state senator told The New York Times that she and Graham are close friends but never spoke about politics, but Graham told reporters on Monday that they were not friends and said she was “definitely pro-life.”
The criticism over her record has seemingly gotten to Graham’s campaign.
On Tuesday afternoon, Graham spokesperson Abby Zilch posted on X that Norman had donated $1,000 to former Democratic South Carolina state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis. In 2022, he voted against a six-week abortion ban in the state.
But Zilch did not mention that the donation was from 2015, when Stavrinakis was running for Charleston mayor in a nonpartisan election against another Democrat, John Tecklenburg. Tecklenburg, who was backed by progressives, ultimately won that race.
Norman and his campaign did not respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment over text and email.
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