South Carolina Republicans hold primary to pick Senate replacement for the late Lindsey Graham

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Just two months after nominating Lindsey Graham to return to the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Republicans are casting ballots Tuesday in a special primary to pick a replacement following the sudden death of the president's close ally.

Graham's sister, Darline Graham, a political unknown tapped to serve out the final months of her brother's term, is trying to overcome skepticism about her lack of experience in her campaign to replace him. She picked up President Donald Trump's swift endorsement though the rare open Senate seat has attracted a broad field, including some of the state's top Republicans.

For decades, South Carolina voters reliably returned Lindsey Graham to Washington despite periodic primary challengers who accused the dealmaker and foreign policy hawk of being insufficiently conservative.

Tuesday's contest features one of Lindsey Graham’s earlier foes, as well as two U.S. House members and Mark Sanford, the former governor and congressman seeking a political comeback in a field crowded with familiar faces.

Lindsey Graham suffered a tear in his aorta at his Washington home and died on July 11.

Before funeral observances in Washington and South Carolina had even concluded, the campaign was on. State law proscribes a compressed timeline that forced candidates to navigate the decorum of mourning the senator's death while also jockeying to replace him.

A day after Graham’s death was announced, his sister accepted Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s appointment to succeed her brother in an interim capacity. She was sworn in with her family and late senator’s staff standing behind her.

A week later, Darline Graham launched into the campaign herself, encouraged to run and then endorsed by Trump.

Some voters said her brother's reputation helped tilt them over the line to support Darline Graham.

“She’s not a politician, but she was kin to probably one of the greatest senators ever,” Frank Bohn of Horry County said.

While Darline Graham couldn't directly access the millions in Lindsey Graham's campaign account, there was no limit to how much could be transferred to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which funded advertising to support her.

A super PAC that once supported Lindsey Graham has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Darline Graham. Mailers tout her as “President Trump's choice” and “Prepared to Carry on Lindsey's Legacy.”

More familiar to South Carolina voters in their own right are two U.S. House members in the race, one of whom already has a statewide profile.

Fresh off an unsuccessful primary run for governor, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman entered the Senate contest and snapped up endorsements from lawmakers including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, as well as South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.

One of the most conservative House members, Norman is well-known across South Carolina as a fiscal conservative. At times, however, he's been at odds with Trump, backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary.

Also running is Rep. Russell Fry, who appeared poised to gain Trump's backing after Lindsey Graham's death. Despite lacking the president's endorsement, he announced his own candidacy and has been trying to boost his name recognition beyond his pro-Trump, Myrtle Beach-area district.

Voter George Mitford said Fry's service stood out to him over Darline Graham, who hasn't been in elected office.

“I just thought he’d probably had more experience in this than she would have had,” Mitford said, adding that he had supported Lindsey Graham’s Senate tenure.

The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 extramarital affair is making yet another attempt to return to public office.

Sanford’s Senate bid comes just three months after he ended an effort to retake his former U.S. House seat, saying then he was quitting the race to establish a nonprofit to address the national debt, his signature issue.

Sanford had entered that contest on the last day of filing in a race alreadyfull of other Republicans. He's been crisscrossing South Carolina, reintroducing himself to voters after more than a decade out of statewide office.

Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who tried to oust Graham in last month's regular Republican primary, swiftly relaunched his campaign after Graham’s death. Lynch has campaigned as a Trump supporter, but in June, the president on social media called him a “lunatic” and a “disaster for the Republican Party.”

Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s June primary outright. Having set up her campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews has been forced to pivot to a broader critique of the Republican contenders.

No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat here in decades. And when Graham last ran in 2020, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Former Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., watches as he waits to speak at a candidate event days before the special South Carolina Republican primary to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

FILE - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduces Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the nomination Lunday for Commandant of the Coast Guard, Nov. 19, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., left, sits with his son James at a candidate event for hopefuls vying in a special Republican primary to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on November ballots, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, in Florence, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Rep. Ralph Norman R-S.C., speaks at a candidate event for hopefuls vying in a special Republican primary to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on November ballots, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026, in Florence, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Larry Nordone looks on as his wife, U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., speaks to reporters after she voted in a special Republican primary to replace her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on November ballots on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, in Florence, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

WENDOVER, Utah (AP) — The only person to break the sound barrier in a car earned another world record Tuesday in a show of force for hydrogen power.

British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph (653.908 kph) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

The 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force pilot rocketed across the crystalline crust at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats in a 32-foot (9.75-meter) car engineered by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The engines, adapted from those used in the company’s heavy machinery, mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.

“It’s magic to be able to showcase this technology and to showcase how good the engineering is on the best racing surface in the world, Bonneville Salt Flats,” Green said after the run.

To be clear, Tuesday’s feat didn’t come close to approaching the overall land-speed record, which Green set with jet power in 1997. That year, he climbed into the Thrust SSC, a black needle sandwiched between two cartoonishly large jet engines, and drove it to an outright record of 763.035 mph (1,227.985 kph), breaking the sound barrier and achieving a feat no one has come close to matching. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.

In 2006, Green also set the land-speed record for a diesel-powered car — 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) — at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He returned there Tuesday with the goal of beating that mark using hydrogen power, which he has called the “fuel of the future.”

In targeting his diesel speed, Green easily topped the previous hydrogen combustion world record of 185.5 mph (298.5 kph). He had a 10-mile (16-kilometer) straightaway to build speed. A few dozen JCB staff members and reporters watched from a distance through cameras and binoculars.

Green said the inside of the car he used on Tuesday was “probably a little hotter” than in the jet-powered vehicle from 1997, with temperatures routinely above 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).

“But I have been training four months for that, both training in the gym and actually just getting used to it with hot baths,” he said.

A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop a shallow aquifer that cools the tires. The low-friction surface and dry desert air are conducive to speed and have beckoned drivers since the first race there in 1914.

“It looks like snow, and it behaves a bit like packed snow — it is surprisingly slippery,” Green said.

Green was no stranger to speed when he took his first racing job. He had been flying supersonic military jets when he spotted a 1994 British newspaper ad seeking a high-speed driver to break the sound barrier.

Green did not approach supersonic speeds on Tuesday, but JCB engineers hope his feat with hydrogen power will shake up the clean-energy industry.

The company's chairman has argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.

Hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.

The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

FILE - British driver Andy Green goes for a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac,File)

Racing stickers cover a sign for Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, home to a speedway where several land speed records have been set, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

FILE - British driver Andy Green, right, is congratulated by a crew member after setting a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Tuesday, Aug. 2006. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)