Darline Will Do Just Fine

Oh my gosh, this is so delicious.

Some of the same people who wanted to put that rapey weirdo from Maine in the U.S. Senate - you know, the guy with the Nazi tattoo - are now clutching their pearls and declaring that Darline Graham Nordone is not qualified to serve out her dead brother’s term.

I’d like to point out that there are exactly three qualifications to serve in the U.S. Senate: A senator must be at least 30 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least 9 year and be an inhabitant of the state he or she is representing.

Nordone is more than qualified. She was appointed to fill Lindsey Graham’s seat by Gov. Henry McMaster, sworn in and is now the junior senator from South Carolina.

Stop with the charges of “nepotism” and “hereditary” dynasties. We know why the left is mewling about this: President Donald Trump was apparently the first to suggest that Lindsey’s beloved younger sister might serve out his term. If Trump is for it, they’re against it.

In fact, Nordone will be the 48th close relative appointed or elected to fill a congressional vacancy created by a death. This includes 8 women in the U.S. Senate and 39 women in the House of Representatives.

Governors appoint replacements in the Senate. Special elections are held to fill House vacancies.

This trend began when Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas became the first widow to fill her husband's seat in the U.S. Congress. She was appointed to the United States Senate on November 13, 1931 to complete the term of her deceased husband, Senator Thaddeus Caraway.

Caraway made history again in 1932 when she won a special election and was the first woman’s directly elected to the U.S. Senate. (Bookmark this. It’s bound to be a “Jeopardy!” question eventually.)

Since that time a number of widows went directly from the funerals of their husbands to the campaign trail to fill their vacancies left in the House of representatives. Lefties who fondly remember NPR’s Cokie Roberts may recall that her mother, Lindy Boggs, went to Congreve after her father, Hale Boggs, died in a 1972 plane crash.

Back to the “unqualified” Nordone: For the past seven years she has served as commissioner and agency head of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind. She also serves on the South Carolina State Workforce Development Board and its SC Works Management Committee. In 2026, she became president-elect of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind.

Nordone is no stranger to politics. She worked on Lindsey Graham’s campaigns and gave speeches on her brother’s behalf.

Remind me, what were Graham Platner’s accomplishments other than his presence on a predator website and his desire to rape any intruders in his home, but not in a “gay way”? Oh right, he served in the Marine Corps and then disparaged a soldier who he said should have died in combat.

Ugh.

Nordone’s presence in the U.S. Senate does something else: It helps lower the average age of members there. That stood at 64 before the 62-year-old youngster joined that august body this week.