Lindsey Graham’s Sister Defies His Memory to Bow to Trump

Politics admin August 4, 2026 0 Comments

Lindsey Graham’s Sister Defies His Memory to Bow to Trump

Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, has broken with her brother over whether to scrap the filibuster as she tries to drum up MAGA support for her bid to fill his Senate seat full-time.

During Monday night’s Republican South Carolina Senate debate, broadcast on multiple local stations including WIS News 10, Darline Graham said she and her brother “differ” on whether to nuke the Senate filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber. She said she supports eliminating it to pass Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act.

The president’s bill, which he has been obsessing over for months, would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and largely eliminate mail-in voting in elections. It has stalled in Congress because it lacks enough support in the GOP-controlled Senate, and there is little appetite among Republicans to abolish the filibuster and pass it with a simple majority, despite Trump’s demands.

Sen. Graham, who died on July 11 at age 71, had long opposed scrapping the filibuster, fearing it would ultimately benefit Democrats. Darline Graham was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to complete her brother’s term and is one of 10 Republican candidates running in the Aug. 11 special primary to become the GOP nominee in November’s midterm election.

“One of the first things I did was co-sponsor the SAVE America Act. I’m willing to stay through recess to get it done,” Darline Graham said during Monday’s debate.

“You have to have an ID to check out a library book, to buy alcohol. You don’t have to have an ID to vote? That’s absurd.

“And I am all for—this is where I differ from my brother—getting rid of the filibuster to get this done, because eventually the Democrats are going to get rid of it anyway,” she added.

For years, Sen. Graham consistently defended keeping the legislative filibuster, even while acknowledging it could hinder Trump’s agenda.

“If we change the legislative filibuster, there would be an effort to pack the Supreme Court. There would be an effort to make Puerto Rico and D.C. a state. There would be an effort to do away with the Electoral College,” he said in a 2022 statement.

Sen. Graham added that he held the same position “when the shoe was on the other foot” in 2017 during Trump’s first term, when Republicans controlled the House and Senate.

“I’m doing the same thing now I did when we were in power. What’s changed is that almost all the Democrats who were for preserving the legislative filibuster when President Trump was president have now abandoned that,” he added.

Sen. Graham also reiterated his support for keeping the filibuster after President Joe Biden backed changing Senate rules to codify Roe v. Wade into law following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark abortion ruling in June 2022.

“It is abundantly clear the Democratic Party is becoming more radical and will change every institution in the country that stands in the way of their desire to grab power,” he said. “It is a very sad and very dangerous development.”

An increasingly desperate Trump has urged Republicans to scrap the filibuster so the SAVE America Act would require only a simple majority in the Senate rather than the support of at least 60 senators.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly told Trump there is not enough support in the upper chamber either to pass the SAVE America Act or to eliminate the filibuster.

“I’m the one who has to be a clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here,” Thune told reporters in March.

There are 10 Republicans on the Aug. 11 ballot seeking the GOP nomination for South Carolina’s Senate seat. Only the five leading candidates—Darline Graham, Rep. Russell Fry, Rep. Ralph Norman, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, and businessman Mark Lynch—took part in Monday night’s debate.