By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday he had asked Darline Graham, the sister of late Senator Lindsey Graham, to run for the U.S. Senate in a special Republican primary in South Carolina on August 11.
“I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding she would have Trump’s endorsement.
Lindsey Graham, a one-time vocal critic of Trump who went on to become one of the Republican president’s staunchest allies, died late on Saturday from a heart ailment caused by hardening of the arteries, his office said last weekend.
Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster had appointed the sister of the late senator on Monday to fill his vacant Senate seat until the first week of January.
Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives heading into November’s U.S. midterm elections.
The late U.S. senator’s memorial will be held on July 28 in Washington and July 29 in South Carolina.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh And Bhargav Acharya;Editing by David Ljunggren and Michelle Nichols )
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