By Costas Pitas and Nolan D. McCaskill
Aug 11 (Reuters) - Lindsey Graham's sister on Tuesday led a field of candidates vying to be the Republican party's nominee for the South Carolina U.S. Senate seat in November's election following her brother's death, but the vote looks set to head to a run-off, according to US media.
Governor Henry McMaster had appointed Darline Graham to serve the rest of the senator's term through early January, after his unexpected death from a heart ailment.
President Donald
Trump endorsed Darline Graham, who has never held public office, for a full six-year term, calling it a "fabulous tribute" to her brother.
But critics said her bid, based on family name recognition and presidential backing without a political record of her own, had the air of an attempted coronation.
Graham has said that she is "not being handed" the seat and that she realizes that she need to earn the votes.
Ten candidates stood for the Republican nomination in Tuesday's election. If none of them wins a 50% majority on Tuesday, the top two finishers will head to an August 25 runoff.
The winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who had more than $3 million in her campaign war chest at the start of July.
Graham's opponents include U.S. Representatives Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, former Governor Mark Sanford and self-funded Greenville businessman Mark Lynch.
With 37% of the vote counted, the Associated Press placed Graham in first position so far with 32.5% of the vote and Fry second with just over 23%.
ALABAMA VOTE IN REDRAWN SEAT
In nearby Alabama, Republicans in the state's 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House voted on who will be their candidate in a seat that they hope to flip from the Democrats with help from a redrawn map.
The race is potentially crucial to their bid to hold the House, which they narrowly control.
The Republican majorities in Congress are essential to Trump's ability to power ahead with his agenda, but he faces a tough challenge ahead in the November midterm election, given a low approval rating that has eroded further as the Iran war drags on and gasoline prices remain high.
Republican-led states in the U.S. South rushed through a round of congressional redistricting earlier this year, to take advantage of an April Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, a 1965 law intended to prevent discrimination in voting.
Earlier this year, the court cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional map that favors Republicans by eliminating one of two districts where Black voters make up a majority or near-majority.
The Republican winner will face incumbent Democrat Shomari Figures, who is Black and is hoping for a second term.
TIME FOR CHANGE IN SOUTH CAROLINA?
Lindsey Graham won his June 9 primary in South Carolina by almost 28 percentage points, as he sought his fifth Senate term. Lynch, who placed second with nearly 29% of the vote, is the only candidate in the special primary from the original primary field.
Lynch received more than 130,000 votes in that primary, suggesting some Republican primary voters had an appetite for change before Lindsey Graham's death.
"People are furious" about "the coronation of Darline Graham," Lynch said in an interview. "It's OK that they picked her to be the interim senator until January but not to run for office."
Skeptics have questioned Graham's credentials and the president's decision to endorse her over other candidates who have run in previous campaigns. Her rivals expect voters who do not choose her on Tuesday to back her opponent in a runoff.
Trump won South Carolina in 2024 by nearly 18 percentage points.
In interviews, Republicans questioned the potency of Trump's endorsement in South Carolina, where he backed a pair of runoff candidates for governor after polls showed his first pick, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, was poised to lose against Attorney General Alan Wilson.
U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, who ran unsuccessfully for governor, predicted Graham would lose her Senate bid just as Trump's original choice for governor lost.
The president's endorsement "gets you into a runoff," she told Reuters. "But ... it's not enough to win a race anymore."
The eventual Republican nominee is favored to win in November.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Edmund Klamann and Lincoln Feast.)
