Darline Graham Nordone shared a close bond with her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, after he stepped in to raise her following the death of their parents. Now, just days after Graham’s sudden death, she is being considered to fill his Senate seat, with President Donald Trump backing her for the temporary role.
How tragedy brought the siblings together
Graham, who died at age 71 after an unexpected ruptured aorta at his home in Washington DC did have kinds of his own. However, he became the legal guardian of his only sibling, his sister Darline.
The brother and sister grew close after both their parents died when Darline was still a juvenile, their mom of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and their dad of a heart attack.
According to The New York Times, Graham and his sister “grew up in a small room behind the bar,” which their parents ran and which was then known as the Sanitary Cafe. They eventually moved into a trailer and then a house next door. In 1976, when Graham was 20 and his sister was 11, their mother died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fifteen months later, their father died of a heart attack.
NPR reported that Graham “ultimately adopted her after enlisting in the Air Force so that she could receive his military benefits.” Graham never married and died without a wife or children of his own.
“Of all the things that have happened in my life, her turning out so well is the highlight of it by far,” Graham told C-SPAN in 2015, as per Fox News.
Darline Nordone remembers the brother who became her parent
Without a wife by his side, Graham often highlighted his sister and their bond at campaign events, which she sometimes attended.
According to The New York Times, Nordone “did her best to show Mr. Graham’s softer side by sharing stories of how he taught her to ride a bicycle and recalling the pain of losing both their parents, one after the other, at young ages.”
“Lindsey was always my parent,” Nordone told The Times. “There was no doubt in my mind or anyone else’s mind that Lindsey was my guardian.”
She also told The Times: “He’s kind of like a brother, a father and a mother rolled into one.”
“He was a young man taking on a young girl and teenager to raise,” she said.
“He was just dedicating all of that time to raising me and going to school and trying to get an education. There’s just only so much time in a day.”
Nordone reacts after Trump’s announcement
President Donald Trump and Sen Tim Scott, R-SC, both want Nordone in the role.
Trump is pushing South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to appoint her, announcing that he recommended the governor tap Graham’s “wonderful sister” to serve out his term as a caretaker.
“This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Nordone has never held public office, unlike her brother, who served in Congress for three decades in both the House and Senate. She is a mother of two and has worked in a vocational rehabilitation role helping people with disabilities find employment in South Carolina, per Fox News.
Whether she is ready to accept the position remains unclear. “Actually, I’m just kind of like devastated right now,” Nordone told the New York Post shortly after Trump’s announcement.
McMaster is expected to announce his pick Monday afternoon at a news conference. If he does choose Nordone, it would only be a temporary selection. The filing deadline to succeed Graham and run for a full six-year Senate term opens July 21, with a special election primary scheduled for August 11.
