By Frederick H. Lowe

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a one-time opponent of Donald Trump becoming president, but later switching sides and becoming a strong supporter of the Trump presidency, died Saturday from an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. An aortic dissection occurs when a tear develops in the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s main artery. Blood surges through the tear, splitting the layers of the arterial wall. 

The 71-year-old Graham, who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from January 3, 2003, until his death on July 11, 2026, recently returned from a visit to Ukraine, telling everyone he was feeling fine.

In a new development, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has appointed Darline Graham Nordone, Lindsey Graham’s sister, to temporarily represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

McMaster announced the appointment Monday afternoon at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, two days after Graham died at the age of 71, creating a vacancy in the seat he had held for twenty-three years.

Nordone will serve as South Carolina’s junior U.S. senator until the winner of the November general election is sworn into office in January 2027. Under South Carolina law, the governor is responsible for appointing someone to fill a Senate vacancy until the next elected senator takes office.

Although she has never held elected office, Nordone has long been one of her brother’s most visible supporters. 

She frequently appeared alongside Graham during campaign events, including when he launched his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015. 

More recently, she appeared in campaign advertisements during his 2026 reelection campaign, offering voters a personal glimpse into the senator’s family and upbringing.

In announcing the appointment, McMaster called it a way to honor Graham’s decades of service while ensuring South Carolina continues to have full representation in the U.S. Senate. The appointment also received backing from President Donald Trump, who earlier Monday urged McMaster to select Graham’s sister.

“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 on Truth Social. “This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly!”

South Carolina’s other U.S. senator, Tim Scott, also publicly endorsed Nordone before the governor’s announcement.

“Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, would be a fantastic pick to serve out the remainder of the Senate term,” Scott wrote on social media. “After speaking with Darline, there is no one better who understands Lindsey’s love for family, our state, and our country.”

The appointment places someone with deep personal ties to Graham, rather than a longtime elected official, in the Senate seat he occupied for more than two decades.

Graham often credited his sister with shaping his life after tragedy struck their family. When Graham was a student at the University of South Carolina, his mother died of cancer. Fifteen months later, his father died of a heart attack. At just 19 years old, Graham became his younger sister’s guardian while continuing his education, an experience friends and colleagues frequently said shaped his lifelong commitment to public service.

While Nordone will serve temporarily in the Senate, South Carolina voters will still choose who will hold the seat for the next six-year term.

Because Graham had already secured the Republican nomination before his death, state law requires a special Republican primary to select a replacement nominee. Candidate filing is expected to begin July 21, followed by a special primary on Aug. 11 and, if necessary, a runoff on Aug. 25. The Republican nominee will face the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 3 general election.

As a staunch conservative Republican, Graham was said to have little relationship with the Black community and subsequently little to no support from Black voters in South Carolina, except that he served with Tim Scott, a Black Republican in the U.S. Senate. 

Graham also defended President Obama against vitriol from the far-right of his party, calling it “unhealthy.” 

He and Sen. John McCain were best friends in the Senate. During an October 10, 2008, campaign event, a blonde woman said Obama was an Arab and implied that she was afraid of him. McCain corrected her and said, “Obama is a decent family man, and we have differences of opinion.” 

McCain’s beliefs must have rubbed off on Graham.

Graham told CNN in 2015, “To those people who think Obama’s a Muslim who was born in Kenya, I lost you a long time ago.” He added, “There’s a dislike of Obama in my party that’s unhealthy; there was a dislike for President (George W.) Bush in the Democratic Party was unhealthy. He is my President.”

In 2020, during a U.S. Senate debate at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and racial profiling, Graham infamously said that Black people, 90% of whom voted Democrat, could “go anywhere” in South Carolina, as long as they were “conservative.”\

Graham, who earned his bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina, also denied the existence of systemic racism in the U.S., arguing that the elections of America’s first Black president, Barack Obama, and first Black and South Asian vice president, Kamala Harris, were evidence of an America that had moved past racism.

PresidentTrump told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he had spoken with Graham just hours earlier, when the senator had returned from Ukraine. The president said they discussed his voter ID legislation, the SAVE America Act, and Graham’s recent travels.

“He said, ‘I’m tired because it’s a long trip,’ but other than that, he was fine,” Trump recalled.

Graham was running for a fifth term in this fall’s midterm elections, and his death will have implications for legislative business in the Senate – where Republicans’ slim margin is already under stress with the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell.