Overview
- Voters will choose the Republican nominee on Tuesday, Aug. 11, with polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; state law requires a candidate to win more than 50 percent to avoid a runoff on Aug. 25.
- Ten Republicans are on the ballot, including interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, and former Gov. Mark Sanford, making a clear majority unlikely.
- Nordone was appointed to fill her late brother’s seat and has President Trump’s public backing plus NRSC advertising, but she has spent much of the short campaign in Washington rather than on the state trail.
- Late‑July surveys show conflicting leaders — Emerson, Trafalgar and co/efficient polls each name different front‑runners — and focus groups suggest Trump’s endorsement is not decisively moving his base.
- Who wins the nomination will almost certainly be the November nominee and could shift the seat away from Lindsey Graham’s foreign‑policy profile toward candidates focused on cost of living, immigration and local projects, and the victor will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.