WASHINGTON, D.C. – After President Donald Trump was dealt with a few defeats in some primary races, his latest success was in the Senate Republican race in South Carolina on Tuesday. Recent polls show the President’s approval rating dropped, and an expert said Trump’s political capital was on the line in that race.
In a narrow primary runoff victory, South Carolina Senator Darline Graham (R- SC) won the party’s nomination for the South Carolina Senate race.
“I humbly accept your nomination to serve as the Republican nominee,” Sen. Graham told a crowd after her victory.
Graham took over as that state’s Senator following her brother’s death, the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Some cast doubt on whether she would be successful against a five-term Congressman Ralph Norman (R- SC). But with an endorsement from the President and his visit Myrtle Beach to rally for her, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in super PAC money spent on her primary, it helped secure her victory.
“I want to thank President Trump for all of his support and his endorsement,” Sen. Graham told the crowd.
Graham’s victory was a huge success for the President after South Carolina twice in the last six months rejected his preferred candidates. Trump also faced some setbacks recently with a handful of losses in other states.
“At the beginning of the year Donald Trump’s nominees were doing very, very well and then he had a real rough patch in the last couple of weeks with a lot of his preferred candidates not doing well and he just got his mojo back with this race,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of the political management program at George Washington University. “And he knew he was losing momentum. He went down to South Carolina, spent time there, raised a lot of money and also said pretend like you’re voting for me.”
Trump’s real test will be in November as Republicans will fight hard to keep control of Congress.
“For Donald Trump the Senate is a real big thing because he knows his party might lose the House but keeping the senate and keeping people he wants in the senate is really important,” said Dr. Belt. “While Donald Trump’s nominees do really well in the primaries, they often don’t do well in the general election. While they might appeal to the base which is the group that turns out in the primaries, that’s not who turns out in the general, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
The Trump-backed candidate to succeed Oklahoma’s Governor also won after a close race.
