Electric Election Results

This podcast is made possible through listener contributions to the ETV Endowment of South Carolina. From South Carolina Public Radio, this is the South Carolina lead. I'm your host, Gavin Jackson, and this episode was recorded on August 14th, 2026 from South Carolina Public Radio Studios here in Columbia. And AT's, we're sharing a studio again, folks. I'm in the room. He's here. I'm here. In the room, folks, okay. I got to be quiet. You got to be quiet. Hit that mute. It's okay. It's only your mic. It still looks red. It still looks red. Okay. On this episode of the lead, we are heading to the August 25th special U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff between Senator Darlene Graham and Congressman Ralph Norman. President Donald Trump reacts to the election, and we hear from the two of them on election night and get analysis and a look ahead with political communication strategist Rob Gottfried. And we want to hear from you.

You can strategically communicate with him. There it is. These are the things that he would whisper into my ear while I'm trying to talk. But you got them right here, folks. 803, 563-7169. Whisper onto our voicemail box. And then you can get into the wind down, which we will have today. Rest assured, listen ahead. Don't listen ahead. Listen the whole podcast. And we'll be a little carrot for you at the end. So 803-563-7169. We love hearing from you. Senator Darlene Graham led the field of 10 candidates in Tuesday's U.S. Senate Special Republican primary, earning 33% of the vote, followed by 5th District Congressman Ralph Norman, eight points behind. Seventh District Congressman Russell Fry came in third with 20%, and former Congressman and Governor Mark Sanford came in fourth with 15% of the vote. Overall, 335,000 Republicans cast their ballot in the race, which was more than the gubernatorial runoff election in late June, but below the primary turnout in that race back in June 9th. So Republicans are plugged in and paying attention. So keep up that momentum ahead for August 25th. That's the runoff date. So stay tuned for that. I also just want to note we've talked about this in our live coverage. But typically a U.S. Senate campaign, as you guys know, because we were following Senator Lindsey Graham's campaign since the beginning of last year, takes a year plus to run. We have done all of this in the past month, literally. He died on July 11th. The election, the first election, was August 11th, a month. And basically that was two weeks because the first two weeks were really just a morning period. So it's been an intense pressure cooker in the next two weeks will be as well. It's a straight mad dash. But back to the trail, we have seen Senator Tim Scott come out for Senator Darling Graham as well as Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evitt. Businessman Mark Lynch is the only candidate from the race who has endorsed, and he went with Norman. Lynch came in fifth with 20,000 votes. But scratch that because Congressman Russell Fry just announced his support for Graham Friday morning, so we're waiting to see if Mark Sanford does anything next. Who knows? But that's a huge endorsement from Fry because he won nearly all of his PD in Grand Strand District with Graham coming in second in those counties, including the Republican stronghold of O'Re. Meanwhile, Norman really kind of dominated the upstate. So it's that typical upstate versus coast. And she did well down in the Midlands and the low country, but you really need that stronghold in the O'Rea County area to really lock this up if you want to win. So we'll be seeing how they battle for these counties over the next couple days. But let's start with some reaction from the candidates on election night. Here is Senator Graham. I want to thank President Trump. His steadfast support and his complete and total endorsement means so much to me. He knows that I will stand with him and fight for his agenda just like Lindsay did. I also want to thank my opponents, especially Russell Fry and Mark Sanford. They ran a good race. Most importantly, I want to thank the Republican voters of South Carolina for having confidence in me. I look forward to the next two weeks, meeting with you, listening to your concerns, and telling you more about me and my conservative values.

I decided to answer the call to serve because South Carolina and President Trump need a leader who's tough, principled, and will fight to advance our conservative values in Washington. I never expected that career of service would lead me to the United States Senate. I certainly never expected it would happen under these circumstances. I've only been on the job in Washington for three weeks, and I've already passed a major piece of bipartisan legislation through the Senate that meant so much to Lindsay, the Russia sanctions bill, which I believe will end the bloodshed in Ukraine and keep Americans safer. I was also the deciding vote to confirm President Trump's Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche. Some politicians never get a major piece of their legislation passed, so I've already accomplished more in a few weeks than many do in decades. Graham was asked several questions after her brief remarks, including whether the president would be visiting the state to campaign for her. Well, I'm hopeful that President Trump will come down, but we'll see. And there's a big distinction between myself and Ralph Norman. I'm a conservative. I have conservative values. I'm willing to work hard for the people. I'm willing to earn their votes. And yeah, we'll see other differences as the weeks go on. Senator. Just earlier tonight, Congressman Ralph Norman said he has agreed to a debate on Monday. Are you participating in that debate? Have you agreed to that? Well, that's the first I've heard of it, so we'll see. Would you be willing to debate him on that? I'll be willing to debate him, yes. Senator, will you reach out to any of your opponents asking them for your endorsements? Yes, I plan to do that. Have you spoken to anything tonight? I've spoken to a couple of them. Well, which is more to come. Senator, what can we expect to see over the next two weeks in terms of campaigning? You said you might continue to get your message out. What does that look like on here in South Carolina? Probably pretty much every day. I'm going to be hitting the road. I want to sit down with the voters. I want to know what's important to them. So I want to meet one-on-one with as many people as I possibly can. So I plan to cover this entire state. This is your first campaign, the first time that you are the one out front doing that. What's your level of comfort? Your brother had decades to get that level of comfort. Well, it's been absolutely brutal. You know, this, the past month has been brutal. Today is the 11th. My brother passed one month ago today. So none of this has been comfortable for me.

But like I said, I'm a fighter. I have buried my precious brother. I have taken on the role of a United States senator. And I have had this brutal campaign schedule. And I'm still standing. If that doesn't tell you I'm a strong person and a fighter, nothing will. So I think I can handle the next two weeks. Up in Rock Hill, Norman was also joined by his family and then some had a huge group there. More of a watch party than what Darlene's was. Hers was more of a media avail, essentially, just to be, get on camera that night. But Norman was pretty jazzed as he experienced a bit of a comeback from that June gubernatorial primary third place finish. Here's Norman. Trump endorsement. Alan Wilson beat a Trump endorsed opponent. Your thoughts? Well, I asked for the president's endorsement. Didn't get it. But anybody would want the endorsement, but he chose who he did. And that's fine. South Carolina is going to decide the next senator.

draw contrast with your now opponent, Senator Darlene Graham, and show voters how the two of you are different and why you're the better choice. Well, I don't know where she stands on a lot of issues. I think that's where we'll find out, you know, where she stand on pro-life, where she stand on the death penalty, where will she stand on spending. So we'll get into the debate, which I welcome the debate. My record is an open book. You know what I've done. And I will continue that because I think that we're at a critical point because what really attracted me to this race, the Senate is malfunctioning and is where good bills go to die. And I will play a role in passing particularly the SAVE Act, which is verification that you are an American citizen before you vote. I will be laser focused on that. And I will be laser focused on calling the Senate out. They're on a five-week vacation. that shouldn't happen. And so that's just one of the many things. The overall conservative platform of peace through strength, the American First Agenda, I'm all into. President Trump has laid out a great framework that I will be a part of and will promote. And my record backs that up. I'd love to have another reconciliation package. I'd love to have another big, beautiful bill where we reform the tax code, where we work to cut regulations, where we empower the taxpayer. That's what that's about. And we'll debate those issues, and I'm sure there'll be some differences. But I welcome that. And I really trust the people of South Carolina to make the right call. Now, what about Trump? We just heard Darlene talk about him. He's endorsed Graham. You heard Norman say, we're going to win this without him. In our previous pod, you heard voters say his endorsement doesn't really matter. So what's the man thinking? Well, Trump was asked Tuesday night at Joint Base Andrews whether he would campaign for Graham. So far, he has only done a teller rally and cut a video spot for her. Now, here was his response and apologies for that tarmac sound. He just called me to thank me for the endorsement, and it's great that she's doing so well, and she's a very good woman, and she's got good genetics because she's related to Lindsay, who's a real professional. So we'll see. I'm going to call her right now. She just called me two minutes ago. She won by how many points? Well, it's not done yet. but she's clearly the victor as opposed to all the other people. And that's good. That's what you want. Will you campaign for her down in South Carolina? I mean, just so you understand, I like the other people in the rights also. They're all Trump. I mean, they're all Trumpers, but, you know, I endorsed her. I think she's great. It's really in honor of her brother, and she's really a very smart woman. You know, Lindsay loved his sister.

More than anything else, he would tell me about his sister that she's just outstanding. He actually said she's better than him. That was hard for Lindsay to say. So she's out there. She's doing a great job. On Wednesday, I caught up with political communications strategist Rob Godfrey, who has done comms for campaigns, including Governor Henry McMaster and Governor Nikki Haley, and served as her Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. Rob is plugged in. He knows how campaigns work. He's neutral in this primary and one of our go-to folks for insight and thinking on these matters. And I spoke with him remotely. I opened by asking him about what surprised him Tuesday night. While I wasn't surprised to see those two as the top two vote getters, people had been talking all along about the campaigns they'd run, their strength as candidates, the advantages they had built in. I was surprised by a few things. I was surprised by the... depth and breadth of Senator Graham's strength statewide that propelled her to a bit higher of a percentage of the vote than people expected. And by the same token, I was surprised by how strong Congressman Norman ran in the upstate. He clearly translated goodwill that was left over from the governor's race into strong support in that critical area. And he ran ahead of his governor numbers in the upstate. So that bodes well for him. As far as Senator Graham goes, she also surprised some folks by how well she ran in the Grand Strand along the coast. And in order to offset the strong support that Congressman Norman enjoys in the upstate, among Senator Graham's biggest tasks in the next two weeks is going to be to consolidate support. along the coast, run those margins up to try to offset those margins in the upstate that we know that Congressman Norman is going to have. And Rob, to that effect, we're talking about President Donald Trump. Obviously, he endorsed Darlene. He told her to run in this race. He was asked yesterday at Joint Base Charleston if he's going to campaign for her. He didn't really... get too specific about that. So I'm wondering what you think he should do if he does anything. I mean, what he might want to do in order to make sure that his candidate of the choice gets elected and in the Senate to do his bidding without asking too many questions like we would maybe see from a Congressman Ralph Norman who's not always been in lockstep with the president. So I don't presume to tell the president what to do or even to speculate about what he and his team have planned for South Carolina. But if we know that winning is important to him and it has been something that has defined his career in public life far before he was president, we're going to know that this is an important race to him. And so he's always been popular on the coast. It was where he, for all intents and purposes, kicked off his exposure to the state with Tea Party events back as far back as 2015. So I wouldn't be surprised if he did all the work he could do.

to help Senator Graham along the coast up to and include making appearance there. Because making an appearance helps run those margins up if you're her. And it also is an area where he's been an ally. He's had an ally in Congressman Russell Fry. I wouldn't be surprised if the president exerts some pressure on Congressman Frye to get in the game for Senator Graham. I have no idea if that will make a difference because Congressman Fry and Congressman Graham at least publicly have gotten along and worked well in the delegation over the time that they've served together. And, you know, just like the president said last night, he considers all of the candidates trumpers. And so that could well inform how he approaches the race. Because Ralph Norman's not going to be an antagonist of President Trump in the United States Senate, nor would really any of the candidates who had a shot in the race would have been. But to that effect, Rob, I mean, you have Nikki Haley who Norman endorsed in the 2024 and now who's... backing, of course, Norman and this race saying she'll pretty much do whatever it takes to make sure he gets elected. So does this turn into a potential proxy fight where if Trump doesn't come down here, you have Nikki Haley making up the slack when it comes to a big name out there on the campaign trail? I don't believe that this will turn into a proxy fight that dates back to the 2024 presidential campaign because at the end of the day, Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential campaign. And so there aren't too many proxy fights to have in that context. But I would expect to see endorsements come for Senator Graham. just as they will come for Congressman Norman. And when we talk about endorsements, I like to be a little bit careful, not to diminish them, but just to say that endorsements don't always mean transfers of political capital from one elected official to another. What they can mean is building a narrative in the earned media space. you know, on television and in print and in really in communities where local officials can turn out votes of demonstrating momentum behind candidacies. You know, Congressman Fry had a number of statehouse members who lined up behind him. There's no question that those endorsements helped rather than hurt him. You know, those are a lot of Congressman Norman's former colleagues, and those folks are likely to get behind Senator Graham probably and rolled out the right way endorsements, whether they're Freedom Caucus endorsements for Congressman Norman or whether they're endorsements from municipal elected officials or sheriffs or other officials for Senator Graham.

can really tell the story of the health and the vitality of a campaign. And so I would expect to see not only Governor Haley, you know, get involved in the race and do everything she can for Congressman Norman, but for other people. As we've seen, Senator Scott, he's all in for Senator Graham today. And Senator Scott's one of the most popular elected officials in all of South Carolina. And so, you know, I'll be interested to see. whether that means that endorsement comes with his personal blessing or with the resources of the NRC. which is a powerful Washington-based organization that can mean the difference in millions of dollars for Senator Graham. Well, just wrapping up here in two, and I think some folks that there was a political article talking about how this campaign could almost become a Pam Evitt situation. But I want you to talk about that because those are two different campaigns. You have the Graham campaign machine behind Darling Graham. Do you think that there's a possibility we get in one of those dual endorsements going here from the president? Or do you think this is a completely different ballgame from the governor's race? I think this is a completely... different ballgame from the governor's race. I think what we saw last night from the speeches that the candidates gave, that they're both focused on their own races. They're both focused on their own messages. And they both really were unifying candidates last night. I think Congressman Norman came out. He was the happy warrior that a lot of people are used to. He had a unifying message and invited the supporters of his opponents into his camp. And by the same token, Senator Graham found her feet. I think she told the story, not just of the fact that she just lost her brother, but of the fact that she's building a record as a working United States senator who is doing everything she can to help President Trump pass his priorities and help Senate Republicans pass their priorities. And so it was a look into Senator Graham's working relationship with those in Washington. And it was a look into her priorities as a Senate candidate. which are going to be more along the lines of folks who are focused on issues of affordability and issues of and the issues of the day that people continue to talk about. Looking forward to next week, there are several events that will be covering in the sprint to the August 25th runoff election. One big one will be the runoff debate that South Carolina ETV and public radio will be partnering with the Republican Party to provide access to. Yes, breaking news folks. The debate will be held at the Newberry Opera House on August 18th at 7 p.m. And we will broadcast and stream it across SCETV's statewide television and radio network. Now, it's also in partnership with Newsmax because... I'm just going to put that there. The debate will be moderated by Greta Van Sustrin, anchor of Newsmax's The Record, and additional panels will include former SCGOP state chairman Van HIP and yours truly. Yes, that's me. Oh, wow, man. It's going to be quite the debate, and the SCGOP, again, will continue its partnership with Newsmax, which will provide national exposure for the debate, while SCETV will provide its experience as South Carolina's statewide public media network.

Yeah, tune in folks. You can watch on ETV, listen on Public Radio or Newsmax, if you have it. But we'll be out there. We'll be asking questions 7 o'clock on Tuesday evening. Tune on in. Welcome to the Wind Down section, our little break from the news, and we're glad you're here, along with A.T. Shire Lead podcast producer, we are in the same studio, folks. Same room, it's not right. He's breathing my breath. I'm breathing his. It's not good. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. Many people aren't liking it. Let's look at the hopper. What do we got for us? Oh, she's empty. Yeah. She hasn't hopped in weeks on us. It's like, it's not good. Okay, well, I'm just assuming people are on vacation or... Oh, yeah, obviously. The school's in, sure, but you skip the first few weeks of school, you go, you continue the vacations, you know, learning can wait. Yeah, you learn on the pod. But Gavin, I did allude to this. Big things happening in the Shire household, specifically for me, as a nearly 40-year-old man. One of the most vulnerable things a 40-something can do, of course. 30-something, but you're almost there. Oh, correct. I'm 39. But. I got a new belt for the first time in 20 years. Hey, whoa. And I got a jean jacket. You can choose which one you want to talk about. I mean, is it a midlife crisis buying a jean jacket? Did they come as a combo? I don't know. Where were you? Did you buy them at the same time? Close. Close proximity. Why don't you text me? Why did you send me? Why did you send me a picture? You were away. You were gallivanting across Dusseldorf. Come on. I would have, I would have consulted. You would have come back. I mean, you did the Lindsay hits for me. out there. You got to do some belt hits. Yeah, so, I mean, I took my old belt off that I bought in high school. Skinny legend. The metal part is what the leather held up. Leather, strong. There we go. But the metal part just disintegrated in my hand. And there I was. Holding the body of an old friend in my hands. I was like, Caitlin! And I was like, fix some, fix some, call a welder. But, yeah, you could probably take it to, uh, uh, could you imagine if I brought it to like a. You could take it to a shoe person. A cobbler. A cobbler. That's a cobbler. That's a cobbler. Where's that? Where's you could probably do that? But yeah, so exciting news, you got this belt. Where'd you get from? What kind of belt is it going to last half of your life? Oh, he's showing me the belt, folks. I did not ask. You did not ask for my consent. Where'd you get it from? I don't, I think it's from Lucky. I don't know. Yeah, Lucky's good. They don't make things like they used to, dude. I know. I go through belts pretty often, like. He's snapping belts constantly, folks. It's a party trick he does. You know, they start, they start warping to your body. Of course. Like the, you know, you start.

I mean, I could probably wear the same belt from high school, too. I just don't know. I could probably do it, too, if anyone asks me, but they don't ask me. Do you wear a belt? You wear a belt every day? I wear a belt every day, yeah. Common man. I just wear the one belt for everything. I don't care that it's brown. I'll work with everything. I have, like, one black belt. Well, also. And it's in karate. Got him, folks. But also, like, Gavin knows this. The listeners could probably divine this. I'm not a Tucker Carlson. I'm not tucking shirts. He's a free guy. Even at weddings? Listen, that's your turn 40. You start talking about your knees and joints. Keep talking. So I'm not tucking at a wedding. Okay. I'm not doing. So no one's seeing that I got the brown belt with black stuff, you know? So I don't know if it matters. What I'm really trying to get at is my friend of the belt. A 20 plus year acquaintance dead in my arms. Well, I think we could go and get him fixed for you. You know, that could be a nice little gesture up by the half. I have them saved. I haven't gotten rid of it. The quality of the leather. Literally. From this freaking old Navy belt that I went to buy, you know. Like, it is so much better and just like, you feel it and you go, wow. There's no way that an old Navy belt nowadays would last year. What is, what are we saying, 20 years? 20 plus. I got it like senior year of high school. Yeah. So that was 2006, 20 years. Oh, my God. Yeah. No, I mean, so. I know there's different kinds of leather, but I mean, that sounds better than just genuine leather. The thickness of it is crazy that I got for, I don't know, $17 at Old Navy. I got a pretty decent belt from Aldi a couple years ago that I still wear it right now. This man. Did you just get headphones from there? I did. I love Aldi. Oh, God. He got noise canceling all the headphones. I've had a pair before that they did kind of snap sadly because there's too much plastic. These ones are better. Yeah, well, you know, they can. Things just... What doesn't Aldi's have? It's... Well, every Wednesday they repunish the middle aisle where the little treats come out. Don't you have like a streetwear collection? I have the shoes. There's shoes. You have different sweats? I have a... I have a sweatshirt. I have two sweatshirts. I have a windbreaker. I have a fanny pack. I don't think I have any pants or shorts. They say they say don't wear like Kirkland clothes, but here you are. Who says don't wear Kirkland clothes? That's a luck. The internet. The internet. You know, if you're, if you're shopping for your your clothes in Kirkland, I mean. I was always against that as a child. I should have come around. I should have. They got some decent stuff. Yeah, you should have. Listen to me now. Completely flip-flop. Totally 181 second. Right in right here. Should have look for belts there, folks. That's the dad talking. Yeah, so AT just celebrated his 39th birthday, everybody. Thank you. I celebrated 40. But to that end, I was just telling you about the story, which I guess I haven't shared with the listeners because you hadn't heard it.

I was alerted a couple weeks ago by my boss, Amy, that there was a complaint filed against me at the Department of Administration. This is... Well, it's about time. I guess people have issues with me. When you're this famous. You know, you can't go out and about. You can't drive in your state vehicle without people seeing you in the Durango. And so it just happens that someone called in my license plate. Yeah. And it wasn't for excessive speeding because I... Never do that. He doesn't have a lead for it. Whatever the opposite of that, a tin one, I don't know. So it's very late. No, this was so inclined to report me for apparently texting and driving, which I have never done. I was simply getting directions. I don't even look at my phone. This is all secondary, folks. Get to the point. The biggest thing and what Amy almost didn't tell me, but of course she had to, was that when the person called in part of the complaint was. that it was a white man driving the vehicle who was approximately 50 years old. I mean, that's two and a half belts, bucks. Two and a half belts. Like, could they see the grays? I'm not a wrinkled leather bag here. I don't know. So that was just insult injury. Yeah, that was, that was. Now he's got a magnet phone, folks. One of those people with the circles on the back so I can attach it to my bag. He's one. I'm sure you got it at all. Anyway, Gavin. No, they gave it to me. Go ahead, say the outro. Great to be back, folks. We missed you so much. Share us some belt stories, your fine leather goods. Where you procure them from? We need to know. Do you also go grocery shopping and also get your clothes there? At the same time. There's good stuff at Costco. They procure top-notch stuff. They're all my Puma socks. I got a couple of Wrangler shirts. I got that Banana Republic Shacket, which is a jacket shirt. A jerk. A jurt? Shacket. Jirt or a shacket? We'll figure it out. A lot of good stuff. We love to shop off of crates. Let us know where you shop. Maybe you don't because I saw those retail numbers for July and people are dropping off. 803-569. We love hearing from you guys. And you can show us your appreciation. No news, Scott. No news. You can also show your appreciation by leaving us review at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get the podcast from, wherever you get the podcast from. You can also stay at the day with the latest news on SCETV.org and South Carolina Public Radio.org and don't forget to support your local newspapers. The South Carolina Lead is a production of South Carolina Public Radio. Our producer is A.T. Shire. Amy Crouch is our supervising producer. Sean Birch is our executive producer. This podcast is produced with support from PRX and is made possible in part by a grant from the John S. and James All Night Foundation, as well as listener contributions to the ETV Endowment of South Carolina. For the South Carolina Leadham, Gavin Jackson, be well, South Carolina. When it's rain on your wedding day. It's 10,000 spoons with all you need is a knife, you know. You're like, no, no, I hear you. I hear you. I get it. I've heard. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

Isn't this nice? It's a song. I'm doing spoken lyrics. Is it ironic? Isn't it? I really do think.