The sister of US Senator Lindsey Graham will serve as his temporary replacement after the South Carolina lawmaker died from an aortic tear on Saturday.
Darline Graham Nordone was formally chosen by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday, who introduced her as Graham’s “little sister” who would “finish his work for him now”.
“It is such an honour. Lindsey has always been there for me and now I will be there for him,” Nordone said.
The announcement came after officials including President Donald Trump calling for Nordone to serve as his replacement in a “tribute” to the senator, who never married and had no children.
Graham was close with his sister, who he legally adopted after their parents died while they were young.
McMaster said she would serve out the remainder of Graham’s term, which is set to end in 2027.
“Lindsey took care of his little sister,” McMaster said. “It’s my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to finish his work for him now.”
Nordone said she believed “this is what Lindsey would have wanted and I plan to honour him in this way”.
Trump is reading this and thinking
“Does this mean I can just quit and pass the office down to my sons?”
And he’ll fucking try it.
Ah yes the ol royal succession I see here…
“chosen” as replacement? Who the fuck chose? It definitely wasn’t the American public.
No. It says who chose.
Nice “democracy” yous got there…
Who?
Ah yes, this is how democracy works!
Long live the quee…whait what? Public offices are not passed down to the younger generation!!! It’s a public office! It’s not like being president… just Kennedys, trumps, bushes and Clinton’s!
So is this them trying to normalize family succession so Trump can simply appoint his family in the future, and have some sort of precedent to refer to?
Yep!
Did you read the end of the article? It mentions that it’s been done over 40 times in Congress, but with spouses, not siblings
Still not okay.
That doesn’t make it less bizarre and non-democratic.
So who’s replacing the dead turtle?
They’ll make a ridiculous claim that Barron is actually Mitch’s son and install him as the new Dear Leader
So political offices are inherited now like its some medieval lordship?
Yep!
M’ladybugs.
Omg! 😂
Now? It’s a common practice. It’s called “Widow’s succession”. In this case it is Lindsey’s sister, but the spirit is the same.
Usually it is someone to just finish out the current term (not running in the election) or until a special election can take place.
It is common in some commonwealth countries and in countries where their political system is largely based on the UK and its archaic institutions. So UK, Ireland, US and a bunch of ex-colonies and Japan (who adopted a largely US-inspired constitution after WWII).
So common practice within a select group of countries. It is pretty bizarre from the viewpoint of someone not from any of those countries.
Also Japan kind of had some similar traditions, from back in feudalism times (during which they had airplanes).
Hmm “widow’s succession” but Graham never married, this is Graham’s sister, and they live in the deep south. This would raise a lot more questions if Graham wasn’t openly secretly gay.
I mean Graham and his sister have a tragic backstory, so I don’t think it would raise many questions.
As best I can tell this is the first case of a sibling taking over. There are also fewer recent examples than I thought. I assumed a “window succession” was fairly standard, but it seems it’s been 25+ years since it happened last (in the US Senate).
Ok yeah, that one’s on me, I probably should have read the Wikipedia article a bit more before making my comment.
But the succession thing is weird and this is the first I’ve heard of it. Sounds like it might only be temporary? Who knows these days.
In that state, this is by the rules. Stupid AF, if you ask me.
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Henry McMaster is a republican so what does blueMAGA have to do with anything?
Lemmy.ml tankie trying really hard to make blue maga stick. It’s embarrassing.
Laziest “both sides” ever.
It’s going to get real exciting once the midterms get fucked. Then that last spark of hope dies.
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What is a bluemaga?
Something that politically illiterate leftists use to blame all their problems on.
The fake leftists of america, america only has capitalists
Classic lemmy.ml
I was sure this was satire
it sounds like the plot to an 80’s movie when we find out at the end the sister was him all along
And let me guess, he was hardcore anti-DEI aka Didn’t Earn It, yet his little sister is handed the job despite numerous other better qualified individuals
Is his little sister also a self-loathing hypocrite that desperate to kill, displace and impoverish as many people as possible?
Does she have the ladybugs too?
There is 0% chance this is legal.
Not every state constitution has it become a special election
Oddly, the American party of small government (or law and order? Which is it now?) seems not to care. The US is cooked.
Does the US not have special elections?
You guys are just full on monarchy now?
South Carolina is fundamentally a very corrupt state from the highest to the lowest levels. Just look at the Murdaugh family. How the fuck does a family have that much power and influence over a community in the 21st century? So the governor just appointing the next senator doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. They don’t raise the brightest in South Carolina, that’s for sure.
Depends on the state. South Carolina law just has the governor appoint a replacement for the rest of the term.
this time both happen to be from the party, but this rule may get interesting if implemented in purple states
A quick search showed 46 states allow a temp placement by the government, 4 states don’t. Kentucky, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Kentucky being the state that people were just wondering of McConnell had died.
the rule was very recently changed in Kentucky by GOP legislature given that KY currently has a democratic governor and McConnell is 137 years old.
April 2024 is what I saw when I did a quick search, didn’t know that.
McConnell starting having his health issues around 1 year before… Fast results for Kentucky
Recall that Rod Blagojevich got in serious trouble because he basically offered to sell Obama’s senate seat.
Nah I had to look him up, I wasnt from Illinois. But it appears he was a Democrat trying to sell a the Senate seat, Illinois impeached him, the feds then convicted him to 14 years prison, where he sat until 2020 and Trump cummuted his sentence do to him supporting Trump’s campaign. Thn when Trump got into office in 2025, pardoned the previous convictions once again for supporting him.
Apparently Blagojevich described himself as a Trumpocrat.
Possibly worth noting Blagojevich appeared on Celebrity Apprentice with Trump.
So he attempted to sell a Senate seat to anyone for money or employment, and he became employed with the next president who committed and pardoned his convictions of trying to sell the Senate seat.
Sheesh
They do, but they still appoint a replacement until then.
There should be a special election but the time served will be pretty short.
I believe it is temporary until special election is held and determines full-time replacement.
Graham was up for reelection this year and she’s going to serve the rest of his term, so I think in this case it’s until the regular election.
Is she also in the closet?
Likely narnia levels, but I am very sure that will be a very minor issue to what she will do as a newly not elected official.
After Trump, the bar to be a Republican official is so low that it’s somewhere in the Mariana Trench.
fucking nepotism man; whatever happened to “merit”
It is a merit based system. They just didn’t tell you that “merit” = dollars and you start life with extra “merit” depending on what family you are born to.
