MAGA is above all a political movement that adopts the political tactics of the South, so it’s not surprising that Trump thinks it’s A-OK to appoint Lindsay Graham’s sister to his seat and encourage her to run in the special election:
Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed last week to fill the remainder of her late brother’s term, announced Monday she will seek a full term for her brother’s old seat. Her decision came after winning Trump’s backing, and his endorsement of the political newcomer had the potential to scare away challengers.
But other Republicans are still charging forward, seeing an opening in a race with a highly untested candidate. Their determination is a signal that challenging a Trump-backed candidate may no longer be the career-ender it once was within the party.
“Even folks that didn’t like Senator [Lindsey] Graham or didn’t vote for him in the primary were pretty happy about the appointment, as a tribute to Senator Graham,” said CJ Westfall, chair of the Dorchester County GOP. “But once we saw the president jump in and support her, 95 percent are saying, ‘What the hell are we doing here? We don’t know how she votes. We don’t know what she believes.’”
Unless Darline is nothing like her brother, my guess is what she believes is irrelevant. Whatever Thune and Trump tell her to vote for, she will. I doubt that Trump would have endorsed her to replace her brother if he didn’t have some inkling about what she believes. Frankly, since we’re talking about South Carolina, her background as someone who worked with adults with serious disabilities as well as the blind might make her slightly better than a standard-issue Republican, but only slightly. I’ll just enjoy the chaos that’s resulted from Trump’s endorsement, which was well-documented in the Downballot yesterday.
Darline’s not Lindsey’s wife, obviously, but her appointment is in the grand Southern tradition of putting wives in the place of dead or term-limited husbands. I’m sure there are older examples I’m missing, but let’s start with Lurleen Wallace. This picture from her inaguration should make it clear what was going on — her husband George was term-limited, so Lurleen’s role was to sit quietly while George made all the decisions:
George was a huge asshole. If you have any doubts, let’s check Wikipedia:
Lurleen was diagnosed with cancer as early as April 1961, when her surgeon biopsied suspicious tissue that he noticed during the cesarean delivery of her last child. As was common at the time, the physician did not tell the news to Lurleen but to her husband, who insisted she remain unaware, and failed to seek appropriate care for her. When she saw a gynecologist for abnormal bleeding in 1965, her diagnosis of uterine cancer came as a complete shock. Lurleen was outraged to learn from one of her husband's aides that the staffers had known of her cancer since George's 1962 campaign three years earlier.[19]
Lurleen Wallace cooperated with a campaign of dissimulation and misdirection as she underwent radiation therapy in December 1965 and a hysterectomy in January 1966. Since Alabama then lacked adequate cancer treatment facilities, Wallace traveled to the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment.[20] Despite her ill health, Wallace maintained an arduous campaign schedule throughout 1966 until she won the election. At the January 1967 inauguration, she gave a 24-minute speech, her longest ever, and stated that her husband would be her "number one assistant".[6][19]
She died in 1968, unable to serve out her term and instead enduring a totally avoidable, miserable death. (I asked my dad, who was practicing in 1961, if it was normal practice for physicians not to inform female patients that they might have cancer. His answer was an emphatic “no,” but he also noted that he never practiced in the South.)
Moving on, let’s look at Cokie Roberts’ mom, Lindy Boggs. When her husband Hale went missing in Alaska in 1973, Mrs. Boggs was appointed to serve out his term, and served until 1991. Later, she was appointed Ambassador to the Holy See by Clinton.
Reading Mrs. Boggs’ Wikipedia entry, I found out that apparently the only way to become a Member of Congress if you’re a woman in Louisiana is to have your husband die in office. Catherine Small Long, whose husband was a cousin of Earl Long, served a couple of years after her husband died. The latest, and current serving Representative Julia Letlow, was appointed after her husband died of COVID (at 41) after I’m sure following all precautions and getting vaccinated.
Like most “grand Southern traditions”, this one sucks, but you’re reading a post from a guy who thinks that letting the South secede from the Union would have been a decent choice, in hindsight. Maybe if Darline Graham is nominated, a Democrat might have a chance in South Carolina, but that’s probably too much to ask.
