Trump Hails Hereditary Senate Seat As Meritocracy
President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Myrtle Beach on Friday for interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, urging Republicans to defend meritocracy by electing the woman appointed to the seat surrendered by her brother, Lindsey Graham. Graham Nordone faces Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s Republican runoff, giving voters a clear choice between a congressman with a legislative record and a candidate whose résumé includes having known the previous senator since childhood. State officials said the appointment followed the Senate’s unwritten “next available Graham” provision, which ensures continuity whenever elections threaten to interrupt a family’s public service.
Trump praised Graham Nordone’s lack of political experience as evidence that she remains unburdened by policy knowledge, institutional memory or opinions formed without his supervision. “Darline is incredibly qualified because she has not wasted years studying all the things Washington people pretend senators need to know,” Trump said. “She has the name, she has the family, and most importantly she has me, which is more experience than the Constitution ever required.” Supporters applauded the president’s reminder that national security briefings can be summarized in large type and that senators confronted with difficult questions may simply wait for Trump to answer them.
Norman, meanwhile, has insisted that his years in Congress and business make him qualified, reviving the pre-Trump theory that government positions should be awarded according to relevant experience rather than bloodline, appointment and televised loyalty. Republican officials rejected that argument as divisive résumé politics and noted that Graham Nordone had already completed the most demanding part of the process by being related to Lindsey Graham when the vacancy was created. South Carolina voters will now perform democracy’s ceremonial final step: freely ratifying the hereditary transfer Donald Trump has already approved.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.