Trump and Thune support Lindsey Graham’s sister being appointed to his Senate seat

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Monday he recommended to South Carolina’s governor that Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, be appointed to serve in the late lawmaker’s seat after he suddenly died over the weekend.

“I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!”

Under state law, McMaster can appoint a temporary replacement to fill Graham’s vacant seat. But because Graham was up for reelection this year, his death will kick off a sprint primary election to replace him on the November ballot.

McMaster has scheduled a 4 p.m. ET press conference to announce his pick. Ahead of the press conference, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN’s Dana Bash that he spoke Sunday with both Nordone and McMaster.

“I’ll let the governor make an announcement about that, but that certainly in my view makes a lot of sense,” Thune said. “In many respects, it would be a way of extending Lindsey’s legacy here and certainly something that, if that’s what they decide to end up doing, I think there’d be a lot of support for it.”

The governor and Trump are longtime allies. Trump said on the 2024 campaign trail that he nominated South Carolina’s former governor, Nikki Haley, as his US ambassador to the United Nations in his first term to elevate McMaster, who was then the lieutenant governor.

Who is Darline Graham Nordone?

Graham and his sister were close their entire lives, his sister told CNN’s Dana Bash in a 2015 interview after her brother launched his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

“Even when my parents were alive, they worked really long, hard hours running a small business. So even then, he was a caregiver to me,” she said.

The same year, the unmarried Graham was asked by the Daily Mail Online who would be his first lady.

“Well, I’ve got a sister. She could play that role if necessary,” he said.

The two grew up in a single room behind the Sanitary Cafe — a bar, pool hall and liquor store their parents ran in Central, South Carolina.

After their parents died within 15 months of each other, Darline became orphaned at age 13 in 1976. Graham — the first in his family to attend college, and a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps — became Darline’s legal guardian. That enabled Darline to access her brother’s military benefits, she told CNN in 2015.

She said being adopted by her brother “was a little odd” at first, but she came to understand “it makes perfect sense.”

“I knew he was doing what he could to take care of me, and it was best for us,” she said.

McMaster is term-limited and cannot seek reelection this year. Trump this year floated the governor’s son, Henry McMaster Jr., as a potential pick for lieutenant governor after he endorsed McMaster’s lieutenant governor, Pamela Evette, in the state’s gubernatorial primary.

McMaster Jr. declined, writing on social media that “now is simply not the right time for me to be considered” for the post, and Evette went on to lose a primary runoff to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. Trump late in the gubernatorial primary issued a second dual endorsement of both Evette and Wilson.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Evette was fielding calls about entering the race for Graham’s seat. Other potential candidates for a special primary election include Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman.

The winner of that special primary would face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.