We are the State Where the Revolutionary War Was Won! In that war, we wanted freedom from a king who tried to control us. Here is an example. I had a friend whose family emigrated from England in the 1700s. They settled near Charleston. The king granted them a piece of land. My friend had a copy of the land grant. It gave them a section of land with water on one side, boundaries on two sides, and stated “as far west as the land extends.” They lost the land grant after the war. Land that presumably stretched to California.
The king gave away something that he had no power to grant. And the people of SC said no way. We rendered his decision moot by our actions.
I don’t see Trump as a king, and have been favorable towards many things he has done. Heck, I voted for him three times. And once I wasn’t holding my nose. He has gone too far granting our senatorial representative power without our vote. Soon we get to vote.
In the coming weeks we will see a barrage of ads for and against the remaining two GOP candidates. We won’t know who is paying for them. The money will come from out of state, and will try to influence us. The PACs will have names like Friends of Freedom. While they try to strip ours.
They will discourage voters who are sick of their negativity, and don’t trust anything they see. For the 250,000 GOP voters who are expected to turn out (less than 10% of South Carolinians), we will face a binary choice. One or the other. I did not vote for either in the previous two elections. For me, a new choice will be made.
I refuse to let a Trump endorsement pick our senator. The seat is not his to give. Darline has absolutely no credentials except genetics. She will be a Trump lap dog. Even Lindsey was not that.
Ralph is old, read, older than me, and has been in politics a long time. He is good at it. He knows his way around DC. He is a fiscal conservative. And, most important, he supports term limits for Congress which is one of two things America needs. The other thing is elimination of PACs and election buying. I actually trust him to represent me.
I like math. Darline got 33% of the primary voters. Norman got 24%. Fry got 20%. Sanford got 15%. Lynch got 6%. Lynch endorsed Ralph, so that gets Ralph to 30%. It is clear Lynch voters don’t like Graham. Fry and Sanford so far are mute. Fry has become a bit of a kingmaker. He is a guy who claims to be more Trumpy than the Trumpiest, so he may give his endorsement to Graham. Or, he may take a longer view as a 41 year old knowing that Trump will be out of office in two years. My bet is he sides with Graham, but many of his voters do not. Sanford voters are unlikely to support the Trump pick.
All this adds up to a good view for Ralph. As I spoke with voters for 5 months attempting to run as an independent, I can count the number of vocal Graham supporters on my fingers that I met. The wild card is Trump. Will he threaten Fry with destruction? Will he fly into SC and rally for Darline in the next two weeks? Will the people of SC say no to the coronation of Darline? At least one will. That would be me.
By Don Louis · Published 2026-08-13