An endorsement by President Donald Trump in South Carolina appears to be falling flat with Trump’s own voters in the weeks leading up to the Republican primary.
South Carolina is holding a special Republican primary to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham after his untimely July death. Graham’s sister, state Sen. Darline Graham, has thrown her hat in the ring for her brother’s seat. She has Trump’s endorsement, but the Bulwark reports both polls and a focus group say that endorsement is doing little to beat back Republican challengers.
Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell conducts frequent surveys with Trump supporters. And her latest reveals Trump’s 2024 fans have little patience or fondness for his most recent pick.
“She has a master’s and she’s helped people that are blind and she’s a lovely woman advocate. But I don’t feel like she has the experience,” said one 2024 Trump voter, who is a woman.
“What worries me is how quick this has to happen,” said another Trump supporter, this time a man. “[There’s] a rush to make an emotional decision for a lot of people and that emotional decision being we’re going to vote in Lindsey Graham’s sister because it’s that emotional pull. I will not. I have been researching candidates. I will continue to research candidates and make an informed decision.”
“I think she’ll probably win,” lamented another female Trump voter. “… I’m just concerned about the lack of experience. Other than that, I don’t know a lot about her. I do feel like this is rushed. We don’t have time to kind of dig in as much as we probably should. But yeah, I don’t like the lack of experience.”
Longwell pointed out that Darlene Graham tried to check-off major conservative points in her first ad, but Longwell didn’t see the meat of a good argument.
“She hits the main ones, you know, ‘no men in women’s sports’ because God knows that’s the biggest issue facing Americans today. Yeah. And also, ‘I’ll make sure that only American citizens can vote,’ which is actually already the law. So cool,” said Longwell.
“It’s an open question as to whether that’s enough to get her to more than 50 percent in the primary … on Aug. 25,” said Associated Press national politics reporter and Bulwark guest host Meg Kinnard.
It didn’t seem to be enough for Trump voters responding to Bulwark’s survey — nor was Trump’s blessing.
“Another concern for me is that with Trump, it’s kind of like he wants her to take his place because I almost feel like he feels like he can just mold her into doing whatever he wants,” complained another Trump voter, a woman. “And I know that’s not a nice thing to say, but I … kind of get that vibe from him. And when they were doing the funeral in Washington, D.C., some of the things that [Trump] said, I kind of felt it was from a place that because he doesn’t really know her. … It was kind of like, ‘well, let’s get her in there and, you know, she’ll do what I want.’”