2026年7月15日 / 美国东部时间晚上9:13 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：玛丽亚·沙利文
随着11月接替林赛·格雷厄姆的参议院席位竞选仍悬而未决，南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员蒂姆·斯科特暗示，这位已故参议员的临时继任者——他的妹妹达琳·格雷厄姆——可能成为候选人之一。
“达琳迄今为止的表现非常出色，”斯科特在被问及她竞选兄长席位的可能性时对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，“为什么不呢？”
斯科特担任参议院共和党强大的筹款机构全国共和党参议员委员会主席。他是在一场纪念林赛·格雷厄姆的新闻发布会上发表上述言论的，后者上周突然离世，震动了参议院。这位已故参议员自2003年起在参议院任职，是参议院最有权势的议员之一，部分原因在于他与特朗普总统的密切关系。
此前，南卡罗来纳州州长亨利·麦克马斯特于周一任命达琳·格雷厄姆接替兄长完成剩余任期至明年1月，斯科特曾称赞她展现出“优雅与坚韧”。
“我当时心想，哇，格雷厄姆家的人就是不一样，”斯科特谈及她在“人生中最艰难的日子之一”里的表现时说道。
她并非首位接任亲属曾担任的政治职务的人：密歇根州联邦众议员黛比·丁格尔持有其丈夫约翰曾执掌数十年的密歇根州国会众议院席位，前参议员让·卡纳汉在丈夫于2001年大选获胜前不久去世后，被任命填补密苏里州联邦参议院席位。
达琳·格雷厄姆尚未公开表明有意竞选完整的六年任期。在本周早些时候的一场新闻发布会上，她承诺“在接下来几个月里努力工作，支持总统，延续我兄长的事业”。
南卡罗来纳州已有一众共和党人被视为该席位下月共和党初选的潜在竞争者，目前尚无明确的领跑者。候选人需在7月21日至7月28日的一周内完成初选报名。
该州多名众议院代表团成员考虑参选，不过一些资深共和党人希望推举并非国会代表团成员的候选人。
斯科特表示，“国会议员和前国会议员”已致电表达参选意向，“似乎确实有一长串人士希望参与其中”。
特朗普尚未公开支持任何候选人。在这个2024年总统大选以近18个百分点优势胜出的州，他的背书可能成为关键因素。
据多位熟悉相关讨论的消息人士透露，总统私下表示有意支持众议员拉塞尔·弗莱。这一消息最早由《华尔街日报》报道。
“总统对拉塞尔·弗莱的热情或许并不出人意料，但我尚未看到或听闻白宫方面有任何背书，”斯科特对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示。
弗莱于2022年首次获得全国关注，当时他击败了时任共和党众议员汤姆·赖斯——后者是2021年1月6日国会山遇袭后投票弹劾特朗普的10名众议院共和党人之一。
特朗普本周早些时候在接受纽smax采访时称赞弗莱是一位亲密盟友，称其为“非常、非常有才华的人”和“出色的”国会议员，并表示：“他比前任表现要好得多。”当被问及格雷厄姆席位的潜在继任者时，总统称弗莱是“值得关注的人物”，但补充道“可能还有其他人”。
斯科特周三提到前众议员特雷·高迪作为可能人选，表示自己对高迪“怀有好感”，认为“他会成为南卡罗来纳州一位了不起的参议员”。
高迪曾因主持调查前国务卿希拉里·克林顿对美国驻利比亚班加西使馆袭击事件的回应而获得全国关注，他于2019年离开众议院，目前在福克斯新闻主持节目。他尚未表明是否会参选。
在两次未能成功参与南卡罗来纳州州长共和党初选后，共和党众议员拉尔夫·诺曼和南希·梅斯已公开表示正在考虑参选参议院席位。诺曼告诉记者，他曾向特朗普寻求背书，但总统告诉他“为时过早”。梅斯则可能因与特朗普偶尔紧张的关系面临挑战。
众议员乔·威尔逊和威廉·蒂蒙斯均被视为潜在竞争者，但两人均已排除参选可能。这两位南卡罗来纳州众议院代表团成员分别表示，出于中期选举期间众议院共和党微弱多数席位的考量，他们决定不参选参议院席位。
“在每一个席位都至关重要的时刻，保护我们的共和党多数席位比任何个人的政治前途都更为重要，”蒂蒙斯在社交媒体帖子中写道。
除国会成员外，两位共和党消息人士本周早些时候对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，副州长帕梅拉·埃维特收到了大量呼吁她参选的电话和短信。埃维特曾参与该州共和党州长初选，但在上月的决选中输给了总检察长艾伦·威尔逊。特朗普最初支持她的州长竞选，但后来同时背书了埃维特和威尔逊。
埃维特以两位数优势落败——这一结果让南卡罗来纳州共和党和华盛顿的批评人士质疑她能否击败民主党候选人安妮·安德鲁斯——一位于6月9日赢得初选的医生。
共和党候选人大概率将以显著优势开启竞选。2020年，林赛·格雷厄姆以10个百分点的优势轻松击败民主党对手杰米·哈里森赢得该席位，后者后来担任民主党全国委员会主席。
Tim Scott doesn’t rule out Darline Graham running for her brother Lindsey’s Senate seat: “Why not her?”
July 15, 2026 / 9:13 PM EDT / CBS News
By Maria Sullivan
With the November race to succeed Lindsey Graham in the Senate still wide-open, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina suggested the late senator’s interim replacement — his sister, Darline Graham — could be one candidate.
“Darline has so far been off to a remarkable start,” Scott told CBS News when asked about the possibility of her running for her brother’s seat. “Why not her?”
Scott — who chairs the Senate GOP’s powerful fundraising arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee — made the comments at a press conference to honor Lindsey Graham, whose sudden death last weekend has shaken the Senate. The late senator had served in the upper chamber since 2003 and was among its most powerful members, owing partly to his strong relationship with President Trump.
Earlier, Scott had praised Darline Graham for having “grace and grit” when South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her Monday as her brother’s replacement for the remainder of his current term, which ends in January.
“I was, like, wow. A Graham is a Graham is a Graham,” Scott said about her demeanor during “one of the hardest days in her life.”
She isn’t the first person to take over a political office once held by a family member: Rep. Debbie Dingell holds the Michigan U.S. House seat that was held for decades by her husband, John, and former Sen. Jean Carnahan was appointed to a Missouri U.S. Senate seat in 2001 after her husband died shortly before winning an election.
Darline Graham has not publicly indicated that she is interested in running for a full six-year term. In a news conference earlier this week, she promised to “work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother.”
A crowded roster of South Carolina Republicans has been floated as possible contenders in next month’s special GOP primary for the Senate seat, with no clear frontrunner so far. Candidates will have one week to file for the primary, from July 21 to July 28.
Several members of the state’s House delegation have weighed a run, though some top Republicans have expressed interest in fielding candidates who are not part of the state’s congressional delegation.
Scott said “members of Congress and former Congress members” have called him to express their interest in a run, and “there certainly seems to be a long list of folks that want to get involved.”
Mr. Trump has not publicly thrown his support behind any of the candidates. His endorsement could be a significant factor in a state that the president won by nearly 18 points in 2024.
The president has privately conveyed interest in backing Rep. Russell Fry, according to several sources familiar with the discussions. The Wall Street Journal was first to report.
“The president’s enthusiasm around Russell Fry probably is no surprise to anybody, but I have not seen and heard of an endorsement yet coming out of the White House,” Scott told CBS News.
Fry first gained national attention in 2022, when he defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump has praised Fry, a close ally, as a “very, very talented person” and an “outstanding” congressman in an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, saying: “He’s doing much better than the person who preceded him.” The president called Fry “somebody you could watch out for” when asked about possible Graham successors, though he added there are “probably some others.”
Scott on Wednesday raised former Rep. Trey Gowdy as a possible option, saying he has “affinity” for Gowdy and thinks “he’d be an amazing senator for the state of South Carolina.”
Gowdy, who drew nationwide attention for chairing a committee that investigated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s response to the U.S. embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya, left the House in 2019 and now hosts a show on Fox News. He has not said whether he will run.
Republican Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace have said publicly they are considering runs for Senate, after the two lawmakers unsuccessfully ran in the GOP primary for South Carolina governor. Norman told reporters he asked Mr. Trump for his endorsement, but the president told him “it’s too early.” Mace could face challenges due to her occasionally uneven relationship with Mr. Trump.
Reps. Joe Wilson and William Timmons — both viewed as potential contenders for the Senate seat —have each ruled out a run. The two members of South Carolina’s House delegation said separately that they decided against a senatorial run citing the House Republicans’ narrow majority in a midterm year.
“At a time when every seat matters, protecting our Republican majority is more important than any individual’s political future,” Timmons wrote in a social media post.
Outside of Congress, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette has been inundated with calls and texts urging her to run, two GOP sources told CBS News earlier this week. Evette ran in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, but lost to Attorney General Alan Wilson in a runoff last month. Mr. Trump initially backed her campaign for governor, but he later jointly endorsed Evette and Wilson.
Evette lost to Wilson by double digits — a result that has caused critics in the South Carolina Republican Party and in Washington to question her ability to compete against Democrat Annie Andrews, a physician who won her primary on June 9.
The GOP nominee is likely to enter the race with a significant advantage. In 2020, Lindsey Graham easily won his seat by 10 points against his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, who later went on to chair the Democratic National Committee.