Get MACED - August 26, 2026


Who WON Tonight's RUNOFF?!


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Length

45 minutes

Words per minute

177.13

Word count

8,108

Sentence count

466

Harmful content

Misogyny

33

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

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Hate speech

11

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 all right i think we are doing it live tonight i had the mute on of course
00:00:30.000 All right, tonight we are watching and running down the historic South Carolina runoff for the late Senator Lindsey Graham's seat.
00:00:48.680 He passed away in July due to a tear in his aortic valve.
00:00:54.240 The race is still ongoing, and I don't believe it's been called yet.
00:00:58.200 I believe it will be called for Darlene Graham tonight when it is.
00:01:01.820 And I wanted to run down the details.
00:01:03.800 Since we haven't seen a race like this in over 20 years in South Carolina, we hadn't
00:01:07.380 had a Senate seat open like this since 2004.
00:01:11.380 Senator Graham was elected in 2002.
00:01:14.860 And, you know, there are only 100 of these seats.
00:01:17.860 So every state in the country gets two U.S. senators.
00:01:21.980 That's it.
00:01:22.520 and i'm refreshing all the uh all the the the poll data coming in data still coming in but 0.60
00:01:29.760 darlene is winning in every county right now uh where necessary some of the counties are at 10 15
00:01:34.800 20 percent um i'm sure it'll get tighter as it comes in and i'm not calling it yet but i wanted
00:01:41.100 to run down how all this works and how we got where we are today because it's not often these
00:01:45.400 seats open up and there's been a lot of money spent uh in this race and so tonight south carolina
00:01:51.280 finds out who will be the next U.S. senator, which one of them has the job after this.
00:01:57.500 I want to play this clip from Fox News from this morning.
00:02:02.540 With the Republican Party, we pride ourselves on being a meritocracy.
00:02:06.600 And if you feel comfortable saying that this was done based on merit, then I'm OK with it.
00:02:12.420 But if you don't think this was a meritocracy and she's only in the position because of her
00:02:16.440 late brother, I think that's a different story.
00:02:18.780 So we just got to take that into consideration.
00:02:21.400 You can't say DEI and meritocracy and then have someone that is essentially an empty vessel on some of the biggest issues.
00:02:30.280 But that's all South Carolina.
00:02:32.220 It's always going to be up to the people to decide on what they want.
00:02:35.940 And tonight they will decide whether you voted for Darlene Graham or if you voted for Ralph Norman.
00:02:41.300 The people at the end of the day will decide whether it's my candidate or somebody else's.
00:02:46.280 the voters of South Carolina got to decide that tonight. And this has been quite the race. Polls
00:02:52.680 closed about an hour ago. They closed at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The state is still
00:02:57.800 counting. And the question on the ballot was never really Ralph Norman or Darlene Graham.
00:03:01.540 The question is, you know, who does this seat belong to? And it belongs to the people. So
00:03:05.620 regardless of the outcome tonight, the voters got to decide, which I think for a lot of us,
00:03:10.620 that's what our beef was all about. We didn't want to see someone appointed and having not
00:03:14.620 earned it, gone through the gaunt, had the voters not gotten the say of the voters. And tonight,
00:03:20.380 the voters actually will get a say because the Senate seat isn't a set of China. It's not an
00:03:24.900 heirloom. You don't pass it down to your family. The voters get a say. And six weeks ago, we didn't
00:03:31.020 know this was going to happen. We're a state of five and a half million people here in South
00:03:34.520 Carolina. And so let's get right to it. So here's what we got. I want to be careful because someone's
00:03:39.440 dead. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away on July 11th on a Saturday evening, had a tear to his
00:03:45.540 aortic valve. It was shocking. It was devastating to the state because whether you agree with his
00:03:50.640 politics or not, the man knew his politics. He knew the Senate. He was the chairman of the Senate
00:03:55.100 Budget Committee. And when you called him, he picked up the phone and he answered. He was known
00:04:00.880 for that. He was known to legislate. He was known to negotiate. He was known to play golf with the
00:04:06.060 president and was known to have the president's ear. And here was a guy who was in the thick of
00:04:11.140 it. If there was a fight, Lindsey Graham was always in the room, whether you agree with him
00:04:16.560 or not. And Darlene Graham, his sister, was appointed to serve out his term. It was supposed
00:04:21.000 to be for six months. She was supposed to be a placeholder. And then everything got turned upside 0.99
00:04:25.520 down. There were 10 candidates in the race. It was $14 million spent, nine of it just in the last
00:04:30.900 seven to ten days two weeks or so but darlene grandma's sister was appointed two days after
00:04:36.860 the passing of her of her brother really you know sort of shocking when it all happened she finished
00:04:42.960 in the first round of the runoff with 32.7 percent of the vote and ralph had 24.7 of the vote
00:04:49.020 i was just looking at koushi and the the betting markets and man it wasn't like this earlier
00:04:55.420 tonight um it was more like 60 40 70 30 and now ralph's just tanking in the betting markets i was
00:05:02.280 curious to see if you know koushi or polymarket which one was going to be more accurate and were
00:05:07.740 they going to be more accurate than the pollsters uh so far they have it right right now i'm sure
00:05:12.720 there's a lot of betting going on right now as the results come in i think the race is going
00:05:16.700 i think the race is going to tighten is going to tighten up at the end of the day i mean there's
00:05:21.020 still plenty of counties to come in ralph is leading in greenville and the upstate and anderson
00:05:26.180 and then darlene is one damn near everything along the coast and she's winning the middle part of the 1.00
00:05:31.140 state so far but there's still votes to come in um the the incumbent darlene graham got the backing
00:05:36.660 of the president he had a huge rally for her on friday and myrtle beach which is uh the maga capital
00:05:42.300 of the state of south carolina that is ori county and myrtle beach and then he did a tele-rally
00:05:47.060 tele-rally for her last night. 67% of folks in their initial round of the runoff looked at
00:05:53.200 the candidates and they went with somebody else. And that is what runoffs are for. Not every state
00:05:58.640 has a runoff. South Ghana is a runoff state. Some states have a plurality, a plurality meaning you
00:06:03.860 don't have the majority, but you got most of the votes. So I think Florida has a plurality. But
00:06:08.620 in our state, if you don't get 50% of the vote, and Darlene didn't clear 33% in the first round,
00:06:13.900 And if you don't get 50 percent of the vote, you go straight into a runoff two weeks later.
00:06:20.680 And so, you know, there's some issues that came up on national security last week.
00:06:24.100 And and and rightfully so.
00:06:26.720 If we're in the middle of a war, we want a U.S. senator who knows what they're talking about.
00:06:30.420 But she rightfully also said that she was willing to learn and that she was smart.
00:06:34.880 So the honest thing is to be honest.
00:06:36.340 And Darlene did do the honest thing.
00:06:37.840 And I'll give her that.
00:06:39.800 And so you can learn.
00:06:41.300 Everybody can.
00:06:41.900 And there's still months to figure that out.
00:06:43.900 Early voting was interesting because when the early votes started to come in, the upstate, which is where Ralph Norman is from, Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson, York, those areas, Ralph, we believe Ralph was leading in those votes.
00:06:58.000 And then along the coast, it was lower voting. And in fact, quite frankly, we had more votes in early voting this round than in the initial election.
00:07:08.420 So usually when you have these special elections and you have runoffs, usually with each consecutive vote, the vote is smaller and smaller.
00:07:18.460 Like South Carolina voters have been asked four times this summer to vote.
00:07:23.360 We had our initial election on June 9th. 0.99
00:07:26.180 Many people had runoffs two weeks later, including the statewide governor's race where I got my ass kicked. 0.95
00:07:30.320 And then this special election popped up. 0.86
00:07:33.500 we had 63,000 people vote early versus in June, it was 61,000. So in August, in a special election
00:07:41.940 in August, early voting was 63,000 votes, which is kind of incredible when you think about it,
00:07:48.300 because in June, it was only, it was, I believe, it was 60, excuse me, earlier in the month,
00:07:53.340 it was 61,000. This runoff, which you would think consecutively back to back elections,
00:07:58.140 usually the number of voters that come out is smaller than the initial. So it'll be interesting
00:08:02.400 to see what the final turnout tonight at the beginning of august versus middle august if more
00:08:07.080 people voted in the runoff runoff than in the special election so um i think that it's going
00:08:13.920 to be really fascinating and that'll be the attention if we had more voters in the runoff
00:08:17.620 than in the initial election that'll be because of the president that'll be because of his rally
00:08:22.100 that'll be because of the attention that he drew to the the state in this election and it'll be
00:08:26.640 due to the nine million dollars spent in the runoff darlene graham there were packs out there 0.61
00:08:31.340 um that were that were spending seven million for her here we go um outside packs for Darlene
00:08:38.520 Graham were seven million outside packs for Ralph Norman were two million um basically Darlene
00:08:44.820 Graham packs were spending outspending Ralph by three and a half by three and a half points three
00:08:50.160 and a half times uh not points but three and a half times what she was spending there was a lot
00:08:55.120 of outside money. Senator Graham had about $2.3 million left over in his war chest when he passed
00:09:01.840 away. Darlene Graham couldn't spend that money. It wasn't hers, but his campaign gave the money 0.70
00:09:07.120 to the NRSC. And I believe they spent that money on Darlene. And then there was outside money that
00:09:13.700 came in, millions of dollars, 7 million of it. And it's interesting because just six years ago,
00:09:18.880 when Senator Graham was running for reelection in 2020, do you remember how much money was spent
00:09:24.980 It was Lindsey Graham versus Jamie Harrison, and it was over $200 million between the two of them.
00:09:33.760 Graham raised $120 million, no, $110 million, and Jamie Harrison raised $120 million.
00:09:40.160 Lindsey was out-raised by Jamie Harrison by about $10 million.
00:09:44.260 I mean, the fact that both of them raised over $100 million for a U.S. Senate seat is crazy,
00:09:50.120 because when I show you the numbers for the amount of money raised for this seat tonight,
00:09:54.100 It was less than a million dollars between the two candidates. Darlene raised $346,000, 47,000 of that coming from outside, probably the party. Ralph Norman raised $934,000, but 400,000 of that came from him personally. He raised over half a million dollars. That's respectable in two weeks.
00:10:16.560 And he out raised Darlene in the in the in the money race for just candidate to candidate.
00:10:24.420 But think about that. Six years ago. Lindsey Graham raised over 100 million. His opponent raised over 100 million for a U.S. Senate seat.
00:10:32.920 This race will go down. Each candidate raising combined less than than a million dollars.
00:10:39.520 um that's crazy and it'll go to show if if trump you know if his candidate wins tonight
00:10:45.800 how strong his endorsement is in the race um for south carolina senate seat i'm pulling up
00:10:53.480 um the voting again to see what's going on with the republican right now oops sorry uh the results
00:10:59.220 right now uh it looks like she's still in the lead i think she's going to win this thing i'm
00:11:03.820 looking at the counties that are coming in um and she's getting all the right counties and
00:11:08.920 she got the coast and she got the middle part of the state and while we don't have quite 50 percent
00:11:14.240 in yet everything's going in her direction um all right um i you know i have um said on this
00:11:25.620 i guess on friday night trump held the rally for her in myrtle beach there was a nice crowd pitbull
00:11:29.740 was playing. That was good. And there were lots of people. Tim Scott was there. There were other
00:11:38.220 members, I believe, of Trump's cabinet. Jenny Honeycutt was there as well, people rallying for
00:11:43.240 her. I was not there because I was supporting Ralph Norman. I voted with the president, but I
00:11:47.620 also believe that endorsements are a recommendation. They're not a transfer. They're not a transfer
00:11:52.540 of ownership. And you saw a lot of conservatives come out for Ralph. And sometimes the president
00:11:57.440 gets good advice and sometimes he doesn't. And if he wins this one tonight, it'll go to show how
00:12:02.400 strong his endorsement is in our state right now in Congress. And what some people don't realize
00:12:08.380 is that, you know, there are only 100 Senate seats. They're the 100 most powerful people in
00:12:12.980 the country, maybe even the world. Every state gets two. So if you're a small state like Rhode
00:12:17.040 Island with a small population, you get two U.S. Senate seats. A population like California,
00:12:22.060 Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, large states, they only get two. In the House, it's decided by
00:12:28.360 population. So every state has a different number of House members. So we're talking about the 100
00:12:32.740 most powerful people in America when you're electing a U.S. senator. But we had this election
00:12:40.460 and, you know, honestly, the voters said in the Republican primary, of course, due to polling,
00:12:45.800 that 53 percent of them said that endorsement, the endorsements don't matter to them and they
00:12:50.420 were going to decide uh how they wanted to vote and we'll see tonight at the end of the night if
00:12:54.560 the endorsement did matter i think it's going to matter the last poll headed into the election
00:12:58.860 tonight came from the trafalgar group uh and it had them head to head toe to toe damn near even
00:13:07.060 and it had darlene graham at 47.9 percent and ralph norman at 47.8 percent so this actually
00:13:12.500 might be a real nail biter as we wait for the results to come in tonight i don't believe that
00:13:18.260 the race has been called just yet. And we're going to pull it up. We're going to pull the
00:13:25.380 results up again, because I'm just getting refreshed and find out when it's going to be
00:13:29.800 called. But, you know, there were lots of different polls a week ago. Ralph Norman was up by double
00:13:36.500 digits by 10 points with voters and then by up by 12 points with those who were leaning towards
00:13:44.080 ralph uh in this thing and if this comes down and it's really close or it's a 10 point flip where
00:13:49.320 darlene wins by 10 and ralph loses by 10 that'll go to go to show you the power the power of a trump
00:13:56.200 endorsement is real uh here so uh three candidates endorsed uh multiple candidates that have endorsed
00:14:04.260 the summer haven't won by the president three in the last two weeks but this will be a real
00:14:09.040 bellwether, especially with the war going on, on what that actually means here in South Carolina
00:14:15.260 and also, I think, in other places. And I want to talk about the part of the story that I think
00:14:19.620 people skip past. But Lindsey Graham passed away on a Saturday night, and then this seat was by
00:14:24.900 Monday. It was already picked. The governor had already picked someone to replace him and
00:14:31.180 do the remainder, fill the remainder of her term for six months. Nobody had voted for her,
00:14:36.820 Which is why I think you saw a big backlash in the initial election, because people don't want to be told what to do. They actually want to have a voice and people have a voice. Nobody had voted for her and the voters wanted to have their say.
00:14:49.020 And in the in the initial runoff, 67 percent of the people, 67 percent and change because she hadn't quite reached 33, over 60 percent, over 67 percent, just over 67 percent of the people who voted, voted for somebody else.
00:15:02.080 And I think that was a back in backlash, early backlash to he passed away.
00:15:07.480 Two days later, there was an appointment that was made and five million people didn't have a say.
00:15:12.100 We're a state with five point five million people.
00:15:14.640 And I want to be I want to be careful because this isn't this really isn't about Darlene.
00:15:18.840 This is about the people. You put any name you want in a chair. It could be anyone. It could be Donald Duck. It could be Mickey Mouse appointed two days later. People were going to respond in a way where they weren't going to pick the initial candidate that the powers that be wanted.
00:15:37.580 And that initial appointment only runs through January 3rd.
00:15:40.900 So for basically almost six months and nobody had a say for anything longer than that.
00:15:47.240 And that's what elections are for.
00:15:48.260 So everyone on television, they're looking at the vote counts like I am.
00:15:53.080 And, you know, we're going to see where where it comes in.
00:15:57.260 But she's she's winning in places that I honestly didn't think she would win.
00:16:00.680 And it's interesting because along the coast in Myrtle Beach, it was definitely they definitely had lower turnout.
00:16:09.040 But the thing about the lower turnout in Myrtle Beach is these are MAGA voters.
00:16:11.960 These are Trump voters, Trump voters, MAGA voters.
00:16:13.920 They love to vote on Election Day.
00:16:15.900 If you're MAGA, you're not voting early, but you are you are voting on Election Day.
00:16:23.020 And I think the early tell where we were hearing stories about Anderson, Greenville, and York County, the counties that Spartanburg that would lean for Ralph voting early in higher numbers is because maybe that those were less or fewer MAGA voters.
00:16:41.240 When I was running for governor, everyone that I've talked to who was MAGA was voting on Election Day, and we're seeing that.
00:16:46.340 So in Horry County right now, I just pulled it up, 55% of the votes are in.
00:16:51.160 um Darlene Graham won Horry County which is one of the largest counties in the state
00:16:56.980 uh so far with 55 percent of the votes in she's at 73 percent I mean that may mean that Trump's
00:17:05.760 with the MAGA voters Trump's endorsement is gold now it means more than anything Norman came in at
00:17:11.120 27 percent now in Greenville County again one of the largest counties in the state only 12 percent
00:17:17.720 of the votes are in and ralph is at 68 so far and darlene graham is in at 32 so far um i'm having
00:17:30.520 keep it coming i got people texting me um the you know the results that are coming in but that's
00:17:36.000 where we are and so greenville and ory if they're exactly opposite it's really going to come down to
00:17:40.680 some of the smaller some of the rural counties tonight uh and who's going to decide this race
00:17:45.600 small towns might decide the race. In Charleston County, I'm in Charleston right now tonight. I'm
00:17:50.180 filming from Charleston, filming live, by the way. This is my first time going live. 35% of the votes
00:17:56.560 are in, and no surprise, Darlene Graham is in at 58%, and Ralph Norman is at 42% right now.
00:18:05.100 Now, this county, it's kind of finicky. We are conservative, but we've got a little libertarian
00:18:14.780 We have a lot of military retirees here, that sort of thing. And also, you know, Kamala Harris won this county, Charleston County, by 11 points in 2024. She won. So depending on where you are, but these are, again, these are, this is a Republican primary. These are the most conservative people of our base that are getting out to vote.
00:18:35.440 So far in Berkeley County, also in my district, 40% of votes are in and Darlene is at 66%, Norman's at 34%. This is going heavily towards Darlene. I'm quite frankly surprised the race has not been called so far.
00:18:49.900 um you know again ralph was out spent three and a half times nine million dollars in the and by
00:18:55.840 super packs by outside money he only had two so the people writing the biggest checks really spent
00:19:00.760 the most money and i have to tell you every time i turned on my computer i saw a darlene graham ad
00:19:05.960 an anti-ralph norman ad um every time i turned on every time i turned on the computer so um
00:19:13.320 all right so as we get there early voting ran the last three days of last week wednesday through
00:19:19.300 friday and uh it was more people voting in the runoff than in the initial 61 000 at the beginning
00:19:24.980 of august for the initial election with 10 candidates and 63 percent um 63 000 people voted
00:19:32.800 in the runoff so 2 000 more people voted early in the runoff than they did in the initial election
00:19:38.980 in the august 11th primary that's interesting because usually it's backwards usually you know
00:19:45.100 with the next race, with the runoff, it's going to be fewer voters, which means tonight it's not a
00:19:51.140 story about people staying home. It's about people actually getting out and vote. The same number of
00:19:55.540 South Carolinians, actually more, showed up early. And if those numbers beat, I mean, if those numbers
00:20:02.560 stand true, we're going to have historic turnout in a special election. Here tonight, the electorate
00:20:07.580 didn't shrink. The electorate actually grew, which is quite unusual. Greenville led the early voting
00:20:12.460 with just over 7,000 early votes.
00:20:15.120 Ori, Lexington, Spartanburg, and others
00:20:16.660 came in behind that.
00:20:19.120 But the raw count isn't the story.
00:20:20.600 The raw count just tells you
00:20:21.520 which counties are big, basically.
00:20:24.040 And, you know, Ralph's going to win Greenville
00:20:26.100 and obviously Darlene's going to win Ori.
00:20:28.780 And Ori's sort of the bellwether 1.00
00:20:30.220 for the rest of the state.
00:20:31.420 That's where MAGA is.
00:20:32.380 If MAGA shows up, if MAGA gets out and votes, 0.88
00:20:36.040 that's who's going to win the rest of the state.
00:20:37.980 I sort of see Ori County as a bellwether
00:20:40.800 for the rest of the state.
00:20:42.460 And so stay with me here. There's a specific piece of real estate, too, we should talk about. The Horry County Myrtle Beach region is where Russell Frye lives. Russell ran for the U.S. Senate. He was one of those 10 candidates. And when he didn't make the runoff, he dropped out. He endorsed Darlene Graham. Russell Frye is the guy that beat Tom Rice.
00:21:02.940 Tom Rice voted to impeach the president. And and so that seat got Tom Rice got ousted by Russell Frye, who is very conservative, who is very MAGA, who the president got right behind him.
00:21:17.960 And he flipped that seat, I guess, a cycle ago, two cycles ago in 2022.
00:21:25.780 The president had a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday and then a Telerati rally on Monday.
00:21:31.840 And nobody flies to a rally if they don't think they're going to win.
00:21:35.700 So I'm assuming the president had good polling and they went into Ory because they were looking for the same voters to try to get out there.
00:21:41.820 And I can't believe the AP has not called the race yet.
00:21:44.080 Somebody's got to call this race soon.
00:21:45.380 I'm not calling it. 1.00
00:21:46.320 I don't have it in front of me, but I feel pretty close that Darlene's going to get this one.
00:21:52.940 Now, Greenville is the most prosperous, the most populous county in the state.
00:21:57.400 It usually casts the most votes.
00:21:59.660 So even if Ralph edges her out by slightly less of a percentage in Greenville County, he still has a chance if she ousts him in Ori the way that it's going.
00:22:09.740 In the June primary, plurality of voters in Greenville picked Lynch over Lindsey Graham in the Senate race.
00:22:15.780 Lindsey Graham actually lost Greenville County, and Ralph did well in the governor's race.
00:22:21.920 Greenville County is not a swing county, but he did well in the governor's race in the upstate.
00:22:27.840 And, you know, if Norman wins tonight, it's because the upstate showed up twice, and the PD didn't, but the PD's showing up tonight.
00:22:35.700 And I think that's the thing that people forget with MAGA voters.
00:22:38.380 MAGA voters, they show up on Election Day.
00:22:42.340 it's getting closer so let's check out the scoreboard right now where we are i see that
00:22:48.900 it is where is my live look at the results here we go we got to refresh the page
00:22:59.140 and it's 53 to 47 right now um if you can see that i'll make that bigger for you to see 53 52
00:23:09.060 to 48 49 well this actually this actually might be a nail biter um it's even closer than i realized
00:23:16.620 it was going to be um yeah it might be a nail biter if ralph wins tonight it's going to be
00:23:21.780 because the upstate showed up not once but it showed up twice um the biggest republican county
00:23:27.780 in south carolina is one that lindsey graham lost in his own primary in june and um in the
00:23:35.620 governor's race, you know, we had such a big, we had a five-person race for governor. The
00:23:43.060 governor's field, Ralph did great. Ralph Norman won in Greenville, the largest county in South
00:23:50.020 Carolina. He won Greenville County in the governor's race in the first round. He beat
00:23:55.940 both candidates that made it into the runoff in Greenville. So Greenville County, the upper part
00:24:01.020 of the state will be um will be ralph's rally rally cry let's go back to early voting so the
00:24:09.900 pink ones that's the upstate that's greenville spartanburg anderson that is ralph's strong suit
00:24:16.640 and that's where if he wins this it's going to be because of greenville county as it comes in
00:24:23.680 is the largest county in the state of south carolina so we're watching greenville uh she's 1.00
00:24:28.220 stomping him in Ori though I mean Darlene is just uh crushing it in Myrtle Beach right now
00:24:35.080 totally crushing it in Myrtle Beach so um Spartanburg was the only other county Lindsey 0.96
00:24:41.640 Graham lost in June and I imagine that we're going to see Ralph crush it there she's crushing
00:24:46.480 it along the coast and in my district Ralph is crushing it in the upstate so um that's sort of
00:24:52.440 interesting um I want to tell you something about Ralph Norman that almost nobody covering this race
00:24:57.980 tonight's going to say. And I, you know, I endorsed him. 11 weeks ago, Ralph ran for governor. He came
00:25:03.480 in third. Then Senator Graham passed away. And by August, he was on a different ballot running for
00:25:08.180 a different office. And the cheap version of the story writes itself. Half the internet has already
00:25:13.360 written it. When the guy loses, the guy shops for another job. When one door closes, another
00:25:19.320 one opens. And the cheap version is sort of wrong. Ralph Norman gave up a safe house seat.
00:25:26.280 He gave up a safe House seat to run for governor and lost.
00:25:30.460 And he didn't have to do this.
00:25:32.120 He didn't have to step into the arena, but he stepped into the arena and he did it anyway.
00:25:37.220 He's unemployed come January, no matter what the outcome, just like myself.
00:25:42.460 And I know something about that primary field because I was in that governor's race.
00:25:47.740 And here's part I think that really matters is an argument that a man who came in third
00:25:51.060 in June has no business running for the U.S. Senate in November.
00:25:54.840 And I understand that argument, but I don't buy it because here's why. Third place in a five-man race in a primary in June and second in a 10-way Senate primary, that's winning. That's not failure. That's winning. That's a man with might. That's a man with energy. And the same voter telling you otherwise is just not telling you the truth.
00:26:18.900 I do want to talk a little bit about who both, we have to get in.
00:26:24.220 We'll talk a little bit about Darlene. 0.99
00:26:25.520 Darlene was born in Central. 0.98
00:26:27.260 She was born in Central, South Carolina, which is the upper part of the state.
00:26:31.820 And her rags to riches story is really kind of incredible.
00:26:37.360 Her parents died.
00:26:38.680 And when they died, Lindsey Graham took care of her, took her in, adopted her.
00:26:44.340 And, you know, they always say that Lindsey Graham, they make fun of him because he was
00:26:47.900 never married never had any children and they say he wasn't a family man but he was a family man
00:26:51.960 he was the family the only family that Darlene had when she was growing up she's also the first
00:26:58.180 female U.S. senator from the state of South Carolina and she made history when she was 0.99
00:27:06.600 appointed as the first female senator but if she wins tonight if Darlene Graham wins tonight 0.99
00:27:11.940 She will be the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the state of South Carolina. And it's crazy that it's taken over 100 years since women's suffrage, since women had the right to vote, to elect a female U.S. senator.
00:27:30.540 but um you know uh she grew up in a family that ran a restaurant a bar and a liquor store so i
00:27:37.380 would imagine she's pretty tough and to and to walk into this senate appointment thinking you're 0.94
00:27:42.000 only going to be here for six months to replace your brother for six months and then not five
00:27:47.000 days later be standing in the oval office listening to the president ask you to run for the u.s senate
00:27:51.680 and tell you he's going to get behind you that really i think molds uh molds a person it shows
00:27:57.620 you the medal that she's made of and if she wins tonight i'm going to back her i'm going to back
00:28:01.520 darlene if she wins um tonight more votes coming in greenville ralph is keeping his lead in the
00:28:09.920 upstate with 47 percent in the largest county in the state um and you know tonight and tonight's
00:28:17.880 not the finish line by the way for the u.s senate seat there are 70 days until the midterm election
00:28:23.640 70 days so whoever wins this tonight has to go up against annie andrews annie andrews has been 0.96
00:28:28.940 running for the november general election since june she's been running against a republican 0.96
00:28:33.920 i think she's running and trying to be a moderate democrat and she's anything but and we'll get 0.77
00:28:40.120 into that in a minute but annie andrews won the democrat primary outright in june she had no
00:28:46.100 runoff she is a pediatrician from charleston south carolina and she ran against me
00:28:53.220 in 2022 and she lost so for any candidate either one Darlene or Ralph going up against Annie 0.60
00:29:00.640 Andrews in November I know exactly how she runs and I know because I've been on the other side
00:29:08.120 of it I know how to crush an Annie Andrews a pediatrician who believes in gender affirming
00:29:14.120 care and if you don't know what gender affirming care is it is a transgender surgery for I mean
00:29:21.280 transgender surgery, period. But she was a proponent for transgender surgery for children.
00:29:28.780 Make that make sense. Okay, more Horry County votes. 75% of those are in, and Horry County 0.94
00:29:35.420 goes 73% for Darlene, 27% for Ralph, 75%. She's killing it. That number's not going to change in 0.99
00:29:45.040 the last 25% of votes coming in. Now, the obvious part about the general election in November for
00:29:49.440 this seat is that south carolina is a red state uh yes indeed we are but annie andrews is raising
00:29:56.340 money trump carried the state by nearly 20 points in 2024 the republican nominee is a heavy favorite
00:30:02.460 in november and i expect the republican to win whether it's darlene or ralph i don't think it
00:30:06.020 matters but look at the last time the seat was on a ballot um lindsey graham won re-election in 2020
00:30:13.460 with 54 percent now 200 million dollars was spent on that race uh 54 percent is a comfortable win
00:30:21.280 but it's not it's not a coronation and you know so we have to be mindful of that and he got
00:30:28.100 that 54 percent being the most expensive senate campaign in the history of the united states
00:30:36.140 at the time and in a presidential year in a state that trump carried by 11 points trump carried
00:30:43.340 South Carolina by 11 points
00:30:45.440 in 2020
00:30:47.100 alright so we're now
00:30:49.780 sitting at 65%
00:30:51.960 of votes are in it's 52%
00:30:54.160 versus 48%
00:30:57.080 that's where the race is right now
00:30:59.920 with 65% of the votes
00:31:02.040 this is going to be a close one 0.98
00:31:03.600 I do think that Darlene 0.98
00:31:05.180 pulls it out tonight 0.96
00:31:07.160 and
00:31:09.700 I think that
00:31:11.580 that's who we're going to see on the ballot in November. I could be wrong if more votes.
00:31:16.540 We'll see how the rest of the votes come in. But it's August and we have four months to get ready
00:31:21.640 for November, November's election. And hopefully this doesn't turn into a hundred million dollar
00:31:26.240 general election fight in November. No one's called this thing yet, this race yet. So I want
00:31:32.740 to tell you about one rule. It's one sentence in South Carolina's code of laws. It's section 7-17-280.
00:31:38.700 and tonight it might matter more than any other candidate so by state law if you win by less than
00:31:45.760 one percent there is an automatic recount of the ballots every state is different the way that they
00:31:51.920 do election law but in our state if you get less than one percent according to the law um it's not
00:31:59.940 may but the state has to um and nobody voted on that uh that is just a law for the total votes
00:32:07.260 cast. Now, if you lose by more than 1%, let's say you lose by 1% and one vote in the state of South
00:32:14.040 Carolina, there is no automatic recount and you cannot as a candidate ask for a recount. It's
00:32:20.040 only if you lose by the narrow margin of 1% or less. So 250,000 votes have been counted so far.
00:32:29.660 There are about 130,000 votes remaining. Many of those are going to be in Greenville County.
00:32:37.260 which is the biggest county in the state not all of Greenville has come in that is a county where
00:32:41.600 Ralph is killing it he's crushing it right now and Darlene is is crushing the rest of the state
00:32:46.620 particularly along the coast and the MAGA regions of the state from Myrtle Beach all the way down
00:32:51.440 to Hilton Head in my district my district is going for Darlene as well so if you're a candidate and
00:32:57.860 you win by one you lose by one percent in one point you can't ask for a recount it's only if
00:33:02.660 you lose by, it's only if you lose by, um, by less than 1%. Um, that's weird. Uh, okay. So I'm
00:33:11.060 out of focus. I'm going to try to reset this back. Um, all right. So one side, one vote outside of
00:33:18.500 that margin and they will, they'll do their, they won't do the recount. So one side inside of that
00:33:25.100 margin and they'll do the recount. So 1% of the total. So if 200,000 people voted today, that
00:33:31.900 window is 2 000 votes right now 250 000 people voted if ralph wins by less than 2500 votes at
00:33:39.040 250 000 votes uh then they would do the recount uh and so that's really the number to watch is he
00:33:45.020 win by does she win or he win by one percent or more or by less and if it's by less there will be
00:33:52.680 now we've got three counties that have no votes yet i believe it's uh edgefield allendale jasper
00:33:58.140 Dorchester is starting to come in now Dorchester will go for Darlene um I don't even have to know
00:34:03.120 the counts of that that but that Dorchester is MAGA mania that is MAGA country and Dorchester
00:34:09.160 is going to go for Darlene tonight um so all right so here we go um let's go check out
00:34:18.240 the betting markets what are they doing anybody have any guesses what the betting markets are
00:34:23.420 doing oh i can't even see ralph on the can't even see ralph on the picture let's see if we can see
00:34:28.340 this now uh oh he's it's tanked and they've got her winning um and we'll see if it comes out as
00:34:35.700 close as trafalgar had it trafalgar had them neck and neck this evening um let's go back to that
00:34:46.240 okay all right a couple more things i want to share with you tonight because the race has not
00:34:51.840 been called yet. I think it's really important to understand who we're going to be going up against
00:34:57.600 this fall in November, whether it's Darlene or if it's going to be Ralph. The woman is named
00:35:03.400 Annie Andrews. She's a Democrat. Oh, that's unfortunate. We're wearing the same color on
00:35:08.520 the same screen right now. I ran against Annie Andrews in 2022 and I stomped her in the general 0.99
00:35:16.140 election? And do you want to know, do you want to know why? Please continue. You'll have an
00:35:21.900 opportunity to read that. Bigoted and built on lies. And they are doing real harm to children
00:35:26.440 in this community. Please continue. You'll have an opportunity to read that. Bigoted and built
00:35:32.320 on lies. And they are doing real harm to children in this community. This was a debate that I had
00:35:39.560 with Annie Andrews back in 2022 for the November general election. I said earlier in the program,
00:35:45.600 annie andrews was a pediatrician is a pediatrician she is a pediatrician who believes in gender
00:35:53.040 affirming care now gender affirming care is the transgender surgery um as a pediatrician she 0.61
00:36:01.500 believes in gender affirming care for children and that means we're talking about cutting off 0.86
00:36:07.940 private parts of kids if a boy thinks he's a girl because he's been brainwashed by tiktok 0.59
00:36:13.000 or brainwashed by social media or brainwashed by his parent and he wants to cut his willy nilly off 0.50
00:36:19.060 she says or believes because she believes in gender affirming care that that's okay that you
00:36:25.000 should be able to do that and i wholeheartedly uh oppose that i think most people do most
00:36:31.280 independents obviously most conservatives many democrats in the general election um in 2022 when
00:36:38.060 I won that seat. My seat had only in redistricting only gotten one point better. I won by 14 points
00:36:43.120 in that race. And I largely ran my election on gender affirming care. So my staff is telling me
00:36:49.800 I need to remind everybody to subscribe. This is my first live program. I've done a couple of
00:36:54.900 podcasts for fun so far. We're enjoying it. I'll be doing this, you know, a couple times a week
00:37:00.420 between now and the end of the year before I leave Congress. I've enjoyed it. I've gotten to
00:37:05.060 talk about the WNBA. I've gotten to talk about Ennis Cantor Freedom. I've gotten to talk about
00:37:09.600 the Radical Islam. I don't know if you saw today, but the Girl Scouts have a special pen
00:37:15.160 if you learn about Islam. And I want to know if they forced them to wear the hijab 1.00
00:37:20.020 or a burqa to get that medal. And the Girl Scouts, we'll get into the Girl Scouts later
00:37:25.020 this week and the indoctrination of children into Radical Islam. It is happening before our eyes. 0.95
00:37:30.740 I've gotten to cover a lot of topics in the last two weeks. And I've had a lot of fun doing it. But
00:37:37.100 if you don't subscribe, and you don't comment in the comment section, I won't know what you want us
00:37:42.800 to talk about or what you want us to cover. When we go back into session next week, I'm going to
00:37:46.780 cover some topics about what we're actually doing in Congress, what it actually means. Expect a
00:37:51.280 primer on the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act. I want to break it down technically for you
00:37:56.380 on why it'll never pass it's not happening and i don't care what anybody tells you um on the
00:38:04.260 television or on social media or in the news uh republicans are not going to pass a save act in
00:38:09.140 the senate it is not going to get to the president's desk to be signed into law and the fault
00:38:12.500 of that are is going to be the fault of republicans particularly the female republicans in the u.s 0.97
00:38:19.820 Senate. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. But I want to be clear tonight. This whole show, 0.73
00:38:26.500 I've been talking to you about a Senate seat. It belongs to the voters. That is why over 67%
00:38:31.640 of the voters in the first part of August, when this first election was held on August 11th,
00:38:37.660 voted for somebody else. They didn't vote for Trump's preferred candidate because voters wanted
00:38:42.900 to have a say. They were pushing back against the appointment of Lindsey Graham's sister to the
00:38:49.460 seat. But now that voters get to have a say, I got to have some water. I've been talking for 40
00:38:54.540 minutes. But now that voters get to have a say, you see where it's coming down to the wire.
00:39:03.140 And voters just used it on, on some, they're using their vote on someone I didn't pick and
00:39:07.960 that's okay. I don't get to like the answer to an election just because I voted that way. Or
00:39:14.460 If it goes my way, I have to live with the outcome of the election.
00:39:18.780 If Darlene Graham wins tonight, I'm going to support her.
00:39:20.960 If Darlene Graham needs tips on how the House works or needs a partner in the House in the next four months before I end my term and my tenure, I am going to help her just like I would help Ralph.
00:39:33.420 There are 32,000 votes left statewide.
00:39:38.160 Excuse me, 111,000 votes.
00:39:41.020 That was a typo.
00:39:41.700 111,000 votes are remaining. The race still has not been called as of yet. I need you to subscribe
00:39:51.120 if I ask for you to do one thing tonight. I want you to subscribe to YouTube so you can get these
00:39:57.920 programs and so that you can comment. If you're not subscribed, you can't comment. Six weeks ago,
00:40:02.940 Darlene Graham held this seat because one man handed it to her, and that was the governor 0.66
00:40:07.860 of South Carolina. He made a phone call and made Lindsey Graham's sister a United States senator. 1.00
00:40:13.360 And not one of the voters was consulted. And that's why 67% of the people voted against her
00:40:18.780 in the initial run. That was my whole objection. My whole opposition to her in the beginning was
00:40:25.640 because voters didn't get a say. It was a family member. It was not us making the decision. It was
00:40:32.420 the mechanism by which it had happened. And tonight, the mechanism of the appointment is
00:40:37.820 ending. The voters get a say. Hundreds of thousands of voters get a say. And two hours ago,
00:40:45.060 she had this seat because a governor gave it to her. But after tonight, if she wins tonight,
00:40:50.640 it looks like she's going to win tonight. After tonight, she will have earned this seat fair 1.00
00:40:57.280 and square. She will have done the work in an election. She will have entered the arena 0.99
00:41:03.280 in an election. She took all the punches and all the punchlines and did it. And that's one thing 1.00
00:41:12.040 she can say. The race has not been called yet, but folks at the Darlene Graham victory party
00:41:18.320 have just started filling into the ballroom where she's expected to speak. I imagine they've seen
00:41:23.880 the results of the rest of the state as we're waiting for them to come in, and she'll call it
00:41:29.040 for herself. But a few weeks ago, nobody knew who Darlene Graham was, and now we do. So Darlene
00:41:38.840 Graham, I want to say congratulations to you. And Senator, I mean that. You've earned it tonight.
00:41:45.340 And when she says that she's going to learn on the job, yes, I believe you, and I will be there to
00:41:52.860 support you in that endeavor because we can't have the South Carolina U.S. Senate seat go to
00:41:58.460 a pediatrician who believes in gender-affirming care for kids. We can't have that. That's unholy.
00:42:06.300 And the one thing I want folks to hear tonight that are in the U.S. Senate, particularly Darlene
00:42:11.760 Graham, Senator Darlene Graham, there is homework. South Carolina is home to Parris Island. Parris
00:42:18.600 Island is where we make Marines. And that's in my district. That's in my congressional district. And
00:42:25.400 if we decide to go to war, whether it's in Tehran or in the Indo-Pacific region, where a lot of our
00:42:30.360 Marines are stationed right now, we have people all over the world, but particularly in the Indo-Pacific
00:42:34.400 region where they are. We have the Charleston port that moves cargo for the entire Southeast
00:42:41.600 and around the world. What happens in the Strait of Hormuz, you know, matters to our ships and to
00:42:46.880 our ports here along the coast. We have a shipbuilding industrial base in this country
00:42:52.100 that we currently can't keep up with. We have airmen and airwomen at Shaw Air Force Base.
00:42:57.980 You know, and foreign policy isn't meant to be a quiz, but there are enormous decisions that will
00:43:02.940 have to be made in the next four months, potentially. And there's, you know, only four
00:43:08.300 months before the next defense authorization cycle really moves and resumes. And that's the window.
00:43:16.280 It's a four-month window to become an expert on some of these issues.
00:43:20.520 And you can't become an expert in four months.
00:43:22.300 But I know that she has hired and retained Senator Graham's staff.
00:43:27.440 And that's going to, I think, help her in the long run.
00:43:32.120 She's going to show up in November with all those people on her team.
00:43:35.820 I know many of those people.
00:43:36.900 They are good people.
00:43:37.580 They're hardworking people.
00:43:38.420 They know their stuff.
00:43:39.720 And I imagine they're going to be briefing her harder now than ever before.
00:43:43.020 And the harder part is that she's not going to enjoy just this one.
00:43:46.540 She's going to be hearing from people all across the state, outside groups that put in millions of dollars.
00:43:53.120 And, you know, she's got a lot of work to do, and she's going to do that work.
00:43:58.020 I think she'll work very hard.
00:43:59.620 She said she would.
00:44:00.340 She said she would learn.
00:44:02.040 But we can't take anything for granted.
00:44:04.480 And so I'm going to be working very hard between now and November to ensure that the voters know who Annie Andrews is.
00:44:13.880 And we will do a primer on her after Labor Day.
00:44:18.500 And we will talk about all of the crazy positions that she has taken. 0.99
00:44:23.100 She's not a moderate Democrat. 1.00
00:44:25.360 She is a radical Democrat that Darlene Graham is going to be going up against.
00:44:30.960 And, you know, to Senator Graham, I want to say congratulations. You want it fair and square and you want it for yourself. Now it's alone and same as it is for everybody else who's ever held that seat. The voters have entrusted you to do the best job you possibly can.
00:44:52.040 I don't want to spend the next four months at unity rallies and unity parties for South
00:44:57.680 Carolina Republicans.
00:44:58.920 We got to go to the Met.
00:45:01.300 Kids are going back to school. 1.00
00:45:03.240 We have the election 70 days away in November, and we have to push back against radical Islam. 1.00
00:45:12.640 I mean, we just, we just, we have to. 1.00
00:45:14.940 I'm calling the race.
00:45:15.960 If nobody else has called the race, I'm calling the race that Darlene won.
00:45:20.320 Congratulations, Darlene.
00:45:22.040 Graham. I will be with you in the trenches in November and I will be educating every single
00:45:27.560 voter, Republican, Democrat, Independent alike, on just who Annie Andrews actually is. She is as
00:45:35.300 radical as some of these Democratic Socialists of America who are running today and we're going
00:45:41.400 to do our best to expose every single one of those positions and help you. God bless.