'I'm in': Lindsey Graham's sister launches South Carolina Senate bid after Trump's backing

WASHINGTON, DC: Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of the late Sen Lindsey Graham, has confirmed that she will run for a full term as South Carolina senator after being appointed as a temporary replacement for her brother in the Senate.

Nordone’s statement comes days after President Donald Trump urged her to run for the South Carolina Senate post on Friday, July 17.

Lindsey Graham's sister confirms Senate bid

Only days after being appointed as an interim senator of South Carolina following her brother, Sen Lindsey Graham's sudden death on July 11, Darline Graham Nordone, on Monday, July 20, confirmed that she will run for South Carolina Senate election.

Appearing on Fox News, Nordone told Sean Hannity that she is running for a full term in the US Senate from South Carolina, after President Trump fully endorsed and encouraged her to run.

“I've made a decision… I'm in,” she said. “It is a tremendous amount of pressure… I’ve been praying a lot, talking to my family... I know that I’m a hard worker… I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes. Absolutely.”

“So, you are inclined to get in,” Hannity asked. Nordone replied that she was in.

“I’m in,” she said, confirming her decision to run as filing for Graham’s vacant seat opens on Tuesday, July 21.

Darline Graham Nordone promises different leadership than Lindsey Graham

A day earlier, Darline Graham Nordone signaled that she’ll take a different approach from her brother, Lindsey Graham, after succeeding him in the Senate.

Despite writing that Graham “accomplished so much” and had “so many big ideas that he was determined to see through,” Nordone suggested that she would lead differently.

“Yet I am not Lindsey. I have my own way of doing things,” Nordone said in an open letter shared on her X account on Sunday, July 19. “But we were raised with the same values: work hard each day, trust in the Lord, remember your roots, and never forget who you work for.”

Darline Graham Nordone was appointed to temporarily fill her brother’s vacant seat by South Carolina Gov Henry McMaster on July 13, with Trump publicly encouraging her to run for a full Senate term.

“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 in a Truth Social post.