(L) Photo screenshot via:Fox News live feed. /(Background) U.S. Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC) (C) departs the Senate chamber after being sworn in at the U.S. Capitol on July 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. Nordone was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster following the death of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Sophia Flores 
12:16 PM – Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Darline Graham, the younger sister of the late South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, has officially been sworn in as interim senator, filing his Senate seat for the rest of her older brother’s term, which expires in January.

On Tuesday, Darline became the first ever female U.S. senator in South Carolina’s history. Additionally, she is the first sister ever appointed to the Senate. Darline will be filling her brother’s seat after he passed away on Saturday from an aortic dissection — a tear in the wall of the aorta — brought on by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or hardening of the arteries.

Darline Graham, sister of Lindsey Graham, has been sworn in to fulfill his Senate term.

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“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him,” Darline said during her appointment ceremony. “My brother was the most amazing person, outstanding leader and just a genuinely good man.”

 

While she has never held elected office before, she has served as Commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind (SCCB) since 2019. Additionally, Darline actively supported her brother while accompanying him on the campaign trail, appearing often in his campaign ads.

At just 22, Graham became Darline’s legal guardian when she was 13 after their parents died just 15 months apart. Darline credits her brother for raising her and making sure she finished high school and went to college.

“He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one,” Darline stated in a 2015 interview with the New York Times. 

 

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