By Nolan D. McCaskill and Costas Pitas
WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Polls in South Carolina closed on Tuesday in the Republican vote to decide if Darline Graham will replace her late brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in November's election, following his death last month.
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.
Ten candidates stood for the Republican nomination in Tuesday's election. If none of them wins a 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.
TIME FOR CHANGE IN SOUTH CAROLINA?
Lindsey Graham won his June 9 primary seeking his fifth Senate term in South Carolina by almost 28 percentage points. 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."
Graham is expected to make the runoff, but skeptics have questioned her credentials and the president's decision to endorse her over more qualified candidates who have been vetted 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.
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Edmund Klamann)
