Graham GOP challenger announces bid for special Senate primary

Campaign Graham GOP challenger announces bid for special Senate primary Comments: by Max Rego - 07/13/26 6:08 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/13/26 6:08 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Mark Lynch, who lost to late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in the GOP Senate primary last month, said Monday he will seek the nomination to replace the longtime South Carolina lawmaker on the ballot after the latter died on Saturday.

“A lot of you have asked. Yes, it’s official,” Lynch wrote on social platform X. “I’m committed to finish what God has called us to since February of 2025. To bring the U.S. Senate seat of South Carolina back to TRUE Conservative leadership for the Republican party.”

Graham died on Saturday night at the age of 71. The chief medical examiner of Washington, D.C. has preliminarily ruled his cause of death to be an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) on Monday appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the younger sister of the late senator, to serve the remainder of Graham’s term through Jan. 3, 2027. The elder Graham became his sister’s legal guardian after their parents died while she was a child.

Lynch, a businessowner and ordained deacon, attacked Graham from the right during the GOP primary. He argued the four-term senator was insufficiently conservative on issues like gun rights, immigration and foreign policy.

But Graham, with the support of President Trump, cruised to the nomination by defeating Lynch by nearly 28 points last month.

As of May 20, nearly three weeks before the primary, Lynch’s campaign had more than $1.3 million on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Under South Carolina law, the state must hold a special primary on Aug. 11 to replace Graham as the GOP nominee. The filing period for the primary will open on July 21 and conclude on July 28. If no candidate receives a simple majority of support, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will occur on Aug. 25, in accordance with state law.

Lynch is the first Republican to announce his entry into the special primary race. Other candidates, notably Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), have shown interest in running.

“You only live once, and … if the people of South Carolina would like me to serve in that capacity, I’ll certainly take a look at it,” Mace said Sunday on “Fox News Live.”

Norman told Bloomberg Government on Sunday he asked Trump to endorse him in the primary, to which the president responded, “Give me a week.”

Trump is yet to publicly back a candidate in the special primary. The winner on Aug. 11 will take on Democrat Annie Andrews, in a race the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as solidly in the GOP camp.