Republicans are starting to scramble to find both a temporary and a permanent replacement for Sen. Lindsey Graham, who in June won the GOP Senate primary in South Carolina and was expected to cruise to re-election to a fifth term in November.
Hours after the senator’s death, President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had a preferred replacement in mind but declined to share a name out of respect for Graham.
“I have somebody that I think would be great, but I don’t want to say it now because it’s just, you know, it’s too soon with Lindsey,” the president told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “I don’t want to even talk about anybody, but I do have somebody that I think is really good.”
Per South Carolina state law, Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, must appoint someone to take over Graham’s post until early January.
The law also dictates the process for an election to permanently replace Graham. A special Republican primary election will be held Aug. 11, and candidates who wish to run can file to run for the seat beginning July 21.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who served alongside Graham, said Sunday that he did not have any insight into whom McMaster may appoint to fill the seat.
“I do know that there are at least one or two Congress members that I would expect Henry McMaster, our governor, to consider,” Scott told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, adding later that it’s “hard to swallow that life moves so quickly, and the party doesn’t stop, ever.”
Scott said that regardless of whom McMaster selects as a temporary appointment, “I would imagine an open primary process would be in the best interest of South Carolinians.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is strongly considering running for the now-vacant seat, according to a source familiar with her thinking. Mace ran unsuccessfully for governor in the state’s June primary.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., publicly said that he won’t run for the seat in a post on X on Monday, citing a conversation he had with the president and Republicans’ slim majority in the House.
“I was grateful to speak with President Trump today reminiscing about our mutual friend, Senator Lindsey Graham. I assured him my goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people!!!” Wilson wrote on social media.
Another potential candidate is Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who just ran for governor and lost in the primary runoff.
A source close to Evette told NBC News that while she and those close to her are still “shell-shocked” by the news of Graham’s death, Evette on Sunday received “dozens of phone calls and texts” encouraging her to jump into the Senate race.
The president endorsed Evette in the governor’s race in May, but it was unclear whether she would be his pick for the now-open Senate race. The source close to the lieutenant governor said that several of the calls and messages she has received have been from “organizations involved in politics at the federal level.”
A spokesperson for Mark Lynch, a South Carolina businessman who challenged Graham in the Republican primary for the Senate earlier this year, confirmed that Lynch planned to run for Graham’s seat.
The spokesperson, Liam Ford, confirmed to NBC News that Lynch wants to finish the mission he started, adding that the businessman was pledging $5 million to his efforts. Lynch’s plan to run was first reported by WCIV-TV of Charleston.
In the immediate hours after Graham’s death, Lynch did not say whether he planned to run for the seat again.
“While we had our political disagreements, today is not a day for politics,” Lynch said in a Sunday social media post. “It is a day to recognize his decades of service and to pray for everyone who knew and loved him.”
