Sen. Darline Graham Nordone participates in a ceremonial swearing-in with Sen. Chuck Grassley as her husband Larry Nordone looks on in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on July 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Finn Gomez / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders July 15, 2026 at 6:15am
After the late Sen. Lindsey Graham spent a political lifetime contributing to the history of the country, his sister on Tuesday notched a little history of her own.
Darline Graham Nordone was sworn in on Tuesday to serve out the remainder of Lindsey Graham’s fifth term in office — the first time a sibling has taken the place of a deceased member of the Senate, according to The Hill.
And at the same time, she opened a new chapter in the politics of South Carolina and the Senate.
Most of the Senate was in attendance, The Hill reported, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — two men Lindsey Graham helped confirm to their posts.
Some former lawmakers also attended, as well as the South Carolina House delegation.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Senate president pro tempore, administered the oath:
“Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” Grassley read.
“That you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God?”
“I do,” Nordone replied.
“Congratulations. God bless you,” Grassley said.
The swearing-in ends one tumultuous chapter in the Senate that kicked off on Saturday with Graham’s sudden, unexpected death from a heart condition.
It fills the Palmetto State’s vacant Senate seat until January and maintains the Republican Party’s 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, as The Hill noted.
And with Nordone serving as a placeholder, unlikely to run for the seat itself, it also marks the beginning of the political scramble to replace Graham in the Senate next year. Nordone’s life has been largely outside politics, aside from supporting her older brother, a man who effectively raised her after the deaths of their parents when they were young.
The state has set Aug. 11 to conduct a special Republican primary to select a nominee to run against Democratic candidate Annie Andrews.
South Carolina has no shortage of Republican officials who could run to replace Graham, but public statements so far have been few.
Mark Lynch, a South Carolina businessman who challenged Graham in the state’s primary in June, used a post Monday on the social media platform X to announce his campaign.
Rep. Nancy Mace, who is leaving the House in January, has also expressed interest in the seat.
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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn’t need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American
