Polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday in South Carolina’s Senate primary, setting up an evening count that will determine whether Lindsey Graham keeps moving toward another term or faces a June 23 runoff. Six Republicans and three Democrats are competing for one of the state’s Senate seats, and a candidate needs at least 50% of the vote to claim a party nomination outright.
Graham, the Republican senator seeking reelection to the seat he has held since 2003, entered the final stretch with one public poll showing him at 52% support. The Trafalgar Group survey, released May 26, put Mark Lynch at 28%, with Darius Mitchell at 4.4%, Pat Herrmann at 2.8%, Thomas Dismukes at 2.5% and Calvin Cowen at 2.3%. That was enough to suggest strength, but not enough to end the contest on paper, especially with well-funded challengers still in the race.
The Democratic side had its own crowded field. A Citadel poll showed Annie Andrews at 45%, Brandon Brown at 14% and Kyle Freeman at 5%, leaving that nomination fight without a clear finish line as ballots were counted.
The race matters now because the primary closes the first stage of South Carolina’s Senate contest and decides who survives into the next round. If no candidate reaches a majority, the top two finishers advance to a June 23 runoff, a result that could keep both parties in campaign mode for two more weeks and leave the final lineup for the Senate race unsettled until then.
Graham’s edge in the Trafalgar poll gave him the clearest opening of the Republican field, but it did not remove the possibility of a runoff. That leaves the evening count as the decisive test: whether he can finish above 50% or whether the race turns to another round in a contest that has remained competitive even with a sitting senator on the ballot.
Results are expected through the evening, and the only question that will matter by the end of the night is whether one candidate in either party clears the majority threshold or whether South Carolina sends its Senate hopefuls back for another vote on June 23.
