COLUMBIA — U.S. Senator Darline Graham fielded questions from South Carolina journalists for the first time since her appointment to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham, holding a brief question-and-answer session with reporters Sunday as voters weigh whether to back her in a special Senate primary Aug. 11.

Graham took ten minutes of questions in a 16-minute call with reporters Aug. 9, often repeating many of the responses offered in previous controlled settings and in stops on the state Republican party’s stump circuit, where she met with voters in Florence Aug. 8 after missing a previous stop in Charleston due to the obligations of her Washington, D.C., schedule.

She described the experience so far as “drinking out of a fire hose” as she casts votes and meets the Beltway influencer class.

“There are so many people that want to get so many different things done, and there's only so much bipartisan support in reality [around what] you can get accomplished,” she said. “I've seen that building relationships is going to be really important, because you can't get anything done by yourself.”

She spoke on her early work in the Senate, taking point on the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act named after her brother, and highlighted her vote to confirm Donald Trump’s former defense attorney, Todd Blanche, as U.S. Attorney General over some colleagues’ concerns of an erosion of independence within the Justice Department.

“I know how important that was to him, and I know it's important to the president,” she told reporters, referring to her brother and the sanctions act. “It's been bloodshed in Ukraine, so of course I was supportive of that and helping to get that across the finish line.”

Asked about specific differences between how she and her brother approached the job of Senator — particularly after expressing similar views on foreign policy on a Columbia debate stage earlier this month — Graham referenced a nebulous focus on “affordability,” and revived a familiar pledge to crack down on Medicaid fraud.

Many of the questions were familiar as well. She was asked about her views on the war in Iran and on life in Washington, and was asked to offer additional clarity around her view on data centers after a debate night gaffe that has since been used against her in attacks by opponents. She has since said she believes they should be a local decision, which she clarified during her Sunday Q&A and in appearances with groups like the South Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative advocacy organization.

“It's amazing to me how you can respond to something and one part of your answer gets highlighted and the rest of it is not even focused on,” she mused Sunday. “When I said we can't let China win the war when it comes to technology and AI… President Trump believes that. I'm not saying that we should just go around building data centers in everybody's backyard. There needs to be local communities, some guardrails put in place on how that's done.”

Attacks on Fry

Graham’s first meeting with South Carolina reporters also featured her first public response to attacks by opponents and Myrtle Beach Congressman Russell Fry about her record running the South Carolina Commission for the Blind. Opponents have criticized her for fostering an environment of “diversity, equity and inclusion” during her time in charge.

In recent days, Fry’s campaign has circulated budget documents from the commission crediting Graham with developing that environment after her 2019 appointment, and has labeled her “DEI Darline” in attack ads as the pair have sparred on cable and digital advertisements. Fry’s official campaign has also issued mailers claiming Graham raised her own pay as leader of the agency, which is false: her salary is actually set by the legislature via the Agency Head Salary Commission.

Graham, in the Sunday meeting with reporters, referred to the claims as “false” and “disgusting” attacks from a “career politician” she claimed was losing in the race.

“South Carolina, I think, likes fighters,” she said during the call. “What he did was weak, though. I'm a fighter and a hard worker. Attacking the Commission for the Blind for being inclusive of people with disabilities is absolutely disgusting. These were state requirements. I was fighting to help people get jobs and get off government assistance.”

“I think voters will reject these attacks on Tuesday,” she added. “It's just, I know, he wants to win this campaign really bad.”

Fry’s campaign responded in a news release after the call, describing Graham as a “political chameleon pandering to whatever audience is in the room.”

“In Washington she wines and dines with Trump's enemies like Lisa Murkowski,” Fry spokeswoman Kayla Lott wrote, referencing a recent Washington fundraiser Graham’s colleagues hosted this week. “In South Carolina she claims to be a conservative while supporting data centers, DEI and pro-choice candidates.”

Limited appearances

For most of the South Carolina press corps, it was their first opportunity to ask questions of Graham in an unscripted environment as she vies for her party’s nomination for a full, six-year Senate term in this November’s elections.

On Capitol Hill, her unwillingness to answer reporters’ questions has raised attention, prompting The New York Times wrote a story about it. However, she has given a few interviews to conservative news personalities and bloggers supportive of conservatives.

She has participated in numerous forums, including with the Faith and Freedom Coalition and in sanctioned South Carolina Republican Party events. But her appearances with South Carolina outlets have so far been limited to a D.C. interview with an Upstate television station and with South Carolina Public Television, though she briefly gaggled with four reporters in Florence for her appearance at a local event Aug. 8.

While several efforts by The Post and Courier to schedule interviews have been unsuccessful, Graham has said she intended to take questions during a planned campaign event in Columbia Aug. 10 as well as on election night. She has a planned telephone town hall with Trump the day before polls open, and is also scheduled to appear in Charleston Aug. 10 for an event with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent at Joint Base Charleston, which is set to be renamed after her brother.

If no candidate wins a majority the vote in the special election, which is likely with such a crowded field, the top two finishers will participate in a runoff election Aug. 25.