By Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Darline Graham said on Monday she plans to run for a full term to replace her brother, late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died this month after serving two decades in the U.S. Senate.
Last week, President Donald Trump asked her to run for the U.S. Senate in a special Republican primary in South Carolina on August 11. She was appointed to fill her brother’s vacant Senate seat until the first week of January.
“I have been praying a lot, talking to my family … I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes. Absolutely,” she told Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ program in a clip released on Monday.
Lindsey Graham, a one-time vocal critic of Trump who went on to become one of the Republican president’s staunchest allies, died on July 11 from a heart ailment caused by hardening of the arteries, his office said.
U.S. Representative Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, said on Saturday he will seek to replace Lindsey Graham in the Senate.
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.
South Carolina’s Republican Party will hold a special primary election on August 11 with a runoff on August 25 if no candidate wins a majority. Whoever captures the party nomination will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the November 3 general election.
CJ Westfall, the chairman of the Republican Party in South Carolina’s Dorchester County, said he formally requested that the state Republican Party’s rules committee review Darline Graham’s eligibility before candidates are certified.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols)
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