Yesterday’s primaries
Lindsey Graham’s sister Darlene won the South Carolina GOP primary and will be the nominee for Senate in that state. South Carolina is a red state, but she is an unknown quantity. Trump endorsed her – I’m not sure why; perhaps out of loyalty to his friend Lindsey Graham? I’m not at all sure she was the stronger candidate. But hopefully she’ll be strong enough.
In Oklahoma, the Democrat primary for the Senate was won by – you guessed it, another socialist. N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas is the name, and if this story sounds familiar it’s because it is familiar:
Thomas, a 31-year-old member of the Chickasaw Nation, defeated attorney and minister Jim Priest, 70, in the contest, despite being drastically outspent. …
Thomas is “a self-proclaimed democratic socialist,” she told NBC News in an interview Tuesday morning, though she said she is “not yet” a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She described democratic socialists as “the next generation” that is “looking to change the system.”
Oklahoma is a red state, and so the Democrat nominee is generally just going through the motions. But these DSA and DSA-adjacent wins remain shocking although not surprising.
The Republican primary winner in the Oklahoma governor’s race was Trump-backed Mike Massei, but the results were close.
I’m already weary of the 2026 elections. And I’m most definitely anxious about them.
neo writes, “I’m already weary of the 2026 elections. And I’m most definitely anxious about them.”
You ‘n’ me both, sistah, you ‘n’ me both.
OK is a religious state with a soft spot for welfare. If it weren’t for religion they would likely be a blue state. I have relatives there, and that has been my impression.
Darlene seems nice but I’m awfully tired of relatives succeeding relatives in what is supposed to be a democratic republic. There are any number of people who could be perfectly decent Senators that don’t share 50% of their DNA with the last one.
— Charles R. Harris
If it weren’t for religion and related cultural issues, most of the red States would blue States. The elite Republican economic agenda is broadly unpopular.
— Niketas Choniates
Same here, NC. I don’t like dynastic succession whether it’s the GOP or the Dems doing it.
That said, if the choice is between D. Graham and Ralph Norman, I don’t know North Carolina well enough to judge which one is the stronger general election candidate. Maybe Graham is more likely to hold the seat than Norman, I just don’t know.
Darlene Graham graduated with a sociology degree from College of Charleston and a master’s in rehabilitation counseling from South Carolina State University, an HBCU school. None of that inspires me with any confidence that she’s even remotely conservative.
Alan E Colbo:
My degrees wouldn’t make you think I was conservative, either. I wouldn’t go by that.
Disagree with red states being blue because religion, nor what ‘elite republican agenda’ means. I assume this means Romney rino republicans.
Democratic high taxes, heavy regulation, green energy (like outlawing gas cars by 2032 like California) and so on doesn’t win votes outside of blue states. Sure people want government handouts everywhere, but leftist economics isn’t a winner outside of coastal elite college educated whites.
True, NEO, people do change after college. I know I did. I’m not certain she’s a closet leftist, but I have doubts about her.
Some of my friends are nervous about DSA candidates winning. I will pay more attention when they 1) win outside a deep blue area or 2) win a statewide race if it’s a red or purple state. Worth keeping an eye on though.
Neo: Can I assume you knew “Islands in the Stream ” was written by the BeeGees? To add one more thing about Dolly Parton from yesterday, she was a very shrewd businesswoman with keen judgement, e.g. Elvis wanted to cover “I Will Always Love You” but wanted half the property rights to a song she had written. She correctly deduced it would be too popular a song to sign over 50%. She was right.
“a master’s in rehabilitation counseling” Alan E Colbo
Premise: if we just talk persuasively enough, criminals can be led to see the light and embrace civilized behavior.
‘Two Peas in the same Pod’ Tally…
What gets me is how neither side seems to grasp why they can’t break away from 50/50. Dems keep doubling down on stuff that scares off the middle – gender ideology pushed onto kids, soft-pedaling anything that smells like socialism. Meanwhile the GOP acts like it’s running a morality court, heavy on dogma, and yeah, the party’s still overwhelmingly white and Christian in a country that isn’t.
Both sides have their own version of “burn the heretic, gulag the enemy of the people” – just different targets, different eras. And I’d put equal blame on the voters as the leadership – white Christian GOP voters keep showing up loudest for the dogma-heavy candidates in primaries, and the DSA-wing Dem voters do the same on their side. Leadership just gives the base what it’s already demanding.
My original call was that the GOP holds Congress in 2026. I’m not walking that back as wrong – just saying it’s a toss-up now, could break either way. The GOP’s sliding, but the DNC’s got its own mess trying to shake loose the DSA wing and its members. Neither side’s in shape to run away with it…at this point, IMHO.
For 2028, I still think the GOP sticks with the white-Christian-male playbook for the nominee – Vance, not Rubio. And that’s exactly the kind of predictable move that could open the door for someone like AOC to take it.
Oklahoma was a purple state until fairly recently. Democrat Brad Henry was governor 2003-2011. Democrat David Boren was one of OK’s senators from 1979-1994. I would say the shift happened between ’94 and 2010.
Meanwhile the GOP acts like it’s running a morality court, heavy on dogma, and yeah, the party’s still overwhelmingly white and Christian in a country that isn’t.
That’s interesting. It seems to me that Trump ended the morality biz for Republicans, and the only moral issue that seems to be hot is the transgender issue, which is also just a reality issue.
As for being white as a cause for not getting much above 50%, I guess the rest of the country is just racist? Not sure we can do much to change the fact that they’re bigots who hate white people.
The usual Karmi blah-blah-blah about Christians being the millstone around the GOP’s neck; if only they weren’t enlightened pagans like him. They would trounce the progressive, taxing, oppressive, commies, because earlier he said the Dems and the Republicans were two peas in the same pod.
Makes perfect sense, take another hit.
Correction on me:
“… if only they were
enlightened pagans like him.”
Graham won with 52.5% of the vote, Norman got 47.5%; that’s closer than the media crowing would indicate, and the results map shows Norman got nearly everything from the the ten northwestern counties that make up “The Upstate” in SC; Greenville, in fact, went 67.5 to 32.5 for Norman, Spartanburg County about the same (Greenville has the highest population of all the 46 counties, Spartanburg runs second, and the Upstate is markedly the most conservative part of the state). The percentages for the other 36 counties are pretty close to a reversal of the Upstate percentages. Historically, the Upstate went against her brother, and he won each time because his support is in the midlands around Columbia and the Low Country along the coast. So is hers, it seems.
Whether this turns out to be good or bad for South Carolina and America, time will tell. I suspect it will be one more arrow in the quiver of those supporting repeal of the 17th Amendment; had Governor McMaster not appointed her to her late brother’s seat I doubt very many people would even know that Lindsey Graham had a sister, and had the 17th not existed his action would – quite possibly – not have mattered.
I think it was ill advised for his sister to get mixed up in electoral politics.
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Interim appointments to the U.S. Senate by state governors are provided for by the original constitution. This was not modified by the 17th Amendment. Your complaint about the 17th Amendment would have to be that state legislators would be less likely to favor Darlene than would Republican voters.
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IMO, the issue with the 17th Amendment is that it has generated an upper house of men whose priority is keeping company with campaign donors. Of course, you only see the downside of the paths you choose.
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I’d be pleased if candidates for federal office were elected for four year terms, if they faced a rotation-in-office requirement (say, if, during a coming term you would reach a point where you had been in an elective federal office for 14 of the previous 16 years, you would have to stand down), and if they had to be between certain ages on the day of the election (say, between 39.0 and 72.0 for members of Congress and between 60.0 and 72.0 for the President). You could elect the President and the House in year one and the state legislatures could elect the Senate in year three. I’d also be pleased if we had a set of appointive VPs given responsibility for supervising portfolios of departments and agencies. You’d have an order of succession among executive branch officials delineated by statutory law and, in the event of a vacancy, you’d have an interim in office for 4-9 months while the state legislatures elected a replacement President.
— whatever
In part. It’s Cornyn and Tillis, Romney and McCain and Jeb Bush, it’s the Chamber of Commerce and the ‘Job Creator’s Network’ and FWD.us. It’s ‘free trade’, unlimited immigration, no worker protections. SoSec and Medicate privatization. The Business Agenda. It’s been the true goal of much of the establishment GOP for decades, and it’s deeply unpopular.
Trump broke their hold on the GOP precisely by running against it in the primaries.
— whatever
But if the choice comes down to the Dem agenda above or the Business Agenda, the former usually wins. Yeah, the electorate doesn’t like the full Dem agenda either, but they hate the GOP economic agenda even worse.
The GOP has won national elections over the last half century mostly on the strength of social conservatism, tradition and faith, national sovereignty and national security, and the sense that that the post-1960s Dems are just Too Weird. They win in spite of the Business Agenda.
The problem has been the before Trump, most of the GOP in elected office and most of the think tanks and other support structures were primarily motivated by the Business Agenda. The least popular part of their overall coalition was the dominant part, and because of that the Dem agenda slowly rolled forward because the GOP would run against in November and then ignore it to do unpopular stuff once in office.
Even now, after everything, there are Republicans in Congress who are still trying to push through immigration amnesties. Because business wants it.
The electorate doesn’t like or want full-throated socialism. But they very much do like Social Security and Medicare, to the point where even hinting at privatization or cuts is politically dangerous.
Follow up on my August 26, 2026 at 6:23 pm comment:
Add another data point to the “why can’t either side break 50/50” pile: Project 2025. Trump spent 2024 calling it “seriously extreme” and acting like he barely knew who was behind it. Then he nominated Russell Vought – who wrote the Project 2025 chapter on overhauling the executive branch – to run OMB, and the Senate confirmed him. That’s not a footnote. It’s the same say-one-thing-do-another move Dems pull when they downplay how far their own base has drifted until the primary’s over. Voters notice the pattern on both sides, and it’s a big reason the middle stays parked instead of committing to either team.
And it isn’t just Trump. Plenty of conservative comment sections spent 2024 waving Project 2025 off as Dem fear-mongering, right up until the appointments started landing. Meanwhile some states have been running their own version of the same instinct. Texas counties have passed “abortion trafficking” ordinances aimed at people using local roads to leave the state for care. Montana pushed a bill that would treat traveling for an out-of-state abortion that’s illegal in-state as trafficking. Alabama’s AG has floated prosecuting people who help women leave. None of that is being imposed by Washington. It’s homegrown. Same pattern: call it overblown, then govern like it wasn’t.
That’s why more voters still don’t trust the GOP enough to give it a clean majority. A lot of the middle isn’t asking for a lecture about dogma or demographics. They’re asking whether the campaign version of the party is the one that shows up after the votes are counted. When the answer keeps looking like “not really,” they stay split, both parties stay near 50, and nothing moves. Leadership didn’t invent that. The base keeps rewarding it in primaries, and the other side does the same with its own version. Until that changes, the tie isn’t a mystery. It’s the product.
Karmi whines that most conservatives aren’t pagans.
Poster boy for Abrahamic Religions….
How predictable and sad; back on his hobby horse.
So few pagans in the country, how will they set it right?
Om fresh outta mosque and ready to spew hate…
Amazing that “humble” Karmi confuses hate with any critique. Are all pagans so?