Sen. Darline Graham was caught bristling at a voter who recorded their conversation at a campaign event.
Graham, who is fighting to hold onto the South Carolina Senate seat she was parachuted into with President Donald Trump’s backing after her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death last month, got testy with a voter who filmed their exchange, according to a video posted to X on Saturday.
“Is your phone recording this?” Graham, 62, asked in the video, which cuts between snippets of the exchange and does not show how the conversation began.
“Yes, because, I mean, this is a political event,” replied the woman recording the video. “There’s always phones recording. So, you’re a politician. You know the drill.”
The video was posted by the account RalphNormanFan, which says it supports GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, whom Graham is facing in the Republican U.S. Senate runoff on Tuesday, but is not affiliated with his campaign.
The video then cuts to Graham, who has never held elected office, pointing to the camera and telling the woman, “It kinda does bother me that you’re recording me—I’m gonna be honest—without my permission.”
After another cut, the video shows the woman telling Graham, “Yeah it is, it’s South Carolina law. You’re allowed to go in and—”
“All right, well thank you,” a staffer says as the video cuts out. The video has over 1 million views as of Monday.
South Carolina is a one-party-consent state, meaning only one person involved in a conversation must consent to its recording.
Graham’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Graham has been struggling to reassure some South Carolina GOP voters that she’s up for a six-year term in Congress. Her lack of experience came to light during a debate last Tuesday, when she confessed her ignorance of national security, her brother’s signature issue. The former disability services executive also incorrectly said South Carolina had 50 million residents; the actual population is roughly 5.5 million.
Dr. Annie Andrews, the South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee, told the Daily Beast after Graham’s debate performance last week that she was “clearly not ready to serve as a U.S. senator.”
MAGA influencers have also grown suspicious of Graham’s position on abortion. The Daily Beast revealed that Graham previously donated to state senator Katrina Shealy after she fought against a South Carolina near-total abortion ban in 2023.
Trump has been staging a last-minute intervention, appearing at a rally with Graham on Friday and holding a tele-rally for Graham on Monday night, as he scrambles to reverse a growing string of endorsement losses.
