U.S. Senate · South Carolina

Research notes & limits

Basic-tier research. Darline Graham was appointed to this seat in July 2026 after Lindsey Graham's death; her federal key-vote and FEC data (if added later by script) will reflect only her short tenure. This slate and the Graham appointment/death were independently confirmed against Wikipedia, CBS News, and the official senate.gov senator roster (which lists 'Graham, Darline' for South Carolina, Class II), since the sole cited source was Ballotpedia. Andrews's summary originally called her a 'Charleston pediatrician' citing only her Ballotpedia page, which does not state her profession; corrected to cite her campaign website, which confirms she is a pediatrician (no independent confirmation that she practices in Charleston specifically, so that detail was dropped). Five independent candidates (Jack Ellison, Cindy Glaser, Paul Sedletsky, Edward Strunge, Reece Wright-McDonald) were removed on 2026-10-19: Ballotpedia's race page (s1) lists them under 'Withdrawn or disqualified candidates', and SC Daily Gazette (s18, Oct. 12, 2026) describes the ballot as Andrews, Graham, Whitener and Hackett only; a Democratic write-in candidate (Catherine Fleming Bruce) is not included per the write-in exclusion in the research standard's ballot scope. Biography pass: Ballotpedia's 2026 race page and candidate pages list Jack Ellison, Cindy Glaser, Don Louis, Paul Sedletsky, Edward Strunge and Reece Wright-McDonald under 'Withdrawn or disqualified candidates', so the independents' ballot status should be rechecked; no biographical information was found for them or for Mark Hackett beyond his earlier campaigns.