Part of: The 2026 South Carolina Senate Special Election
"I would be an idiot not to at least look at it": filing for Lindsey Graham's Senate seat opens Tuesday, and Nancy Mace has seven days
Candidate filing for the special election to fill the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat opens Tuesday, July 21, 2026 and closes one week later, July 28. Rep. Ralph Norman formally entered the race July 18, defying President Trump's endorsement of interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone. Businessman Mark Lynch has also declared. Rep. Nancy Mace has not filed, has not announced, and has not closed the door, telling Fox News on July 12, 'I would be an idiot not to at least look at it.' This dispatch catalogs the filing calendar, the interim appointment, Nordone's July 18 tribute letter to her brother, Trump's 'RUN, DARLINE, RUN!' endorsement, the Emerson College poll showing Mace at 10 percent, and her own July 12 statements verbatim.
Candidate filing for the special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) opens Tuesday, July 21, 2026 and closes one week later, Tuesday, July 28. Rep. Ralph Norman formally entered the race July 18, defying President Trump's endorsement of interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone. Businessman Mark Lynch has also declared. Rep. Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) has not filed, has not announced, and has not closed the door. She said so herself.
The window
- Tuesday, July 21, filing opens, noon.
- Tuesday, July 28, filing closes, noon.
- August 11, Republican special primary.
- August 25, runoff if no one clears 50 percent.
- November 3, general election against Democrat Annie Andrews.
How the seat opened
Graham died July 11 at 71, of a brief sudden illness, hours after returning from a trip to Ukraine. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham's younger sister, Darline Graham Nordone, 62, as interim senator, sworn in July 14 as South Carolina's first female senator. President Trump endorsed her to win the seat outright, writing "RUN, DARLINE, RUN!" On July 18 she published an "Open Letter to the Citizens of South Carolina" paying tribute to her brother, "Lindsey was my rock and my hero," and thanking constituents. The letter does not announce a campaign.
In her own words
The day after Graham died, Mace appeared across multiple networks. On Fox News, July 12:
"I would be an idiot not to at least look at it."
And:
"I'm never going to shut the door. I love the state of South Carolina. You only live once."
On CBS the same morning:
"I would be remiss if I didn't at least consider it."
On CNN that afternoon:
"We can't afford to lose any seats in the House. I'm not pursuing it."
And:
"There will be time to decide."
Maceopedia supercut of Rep. Nancy Mace's July 12, 2026 appearances. Footage: Fox News and CNN. Watch on YouTube. Full sources below. See also the clip page.
The numbers she would carry in
Emerson College Polling, fielded July 14 to 15, 2026 (500 likely voters, margin of error plus or minus 4.3 points):
- Rep. Ralph Norman: 16%
- Mark Lynch: 13%
- Rep. Nancy Mace: 10%
- Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette: 10%
- Undecided: 18%
Her last time on a statewide ballot was six weeks ago. She ran for governor and lost the June 9, 2026 Republican primary, finishing fifth of six with 12.2 percent. Evette (29.3 percent) and Attorney General Alan Wilson (26.2 percent) advanced to the runoff, which Wilson won. Mace conceded and endorsed Wilson.
Seven days
None of this is sealed or in dispute. It is a filing calendar published by the state, a poll with its methodology attached, and a set of dated public statements reproduced word for word. The window opens Tuesday and closes the following Tuesday. Between now and then, "I would be an idiot not to at least look at it" either becomes a filing or it does not.
Sources & related coverage
- South Carolina Election Commission, official filing calendar for the special U.S. Senate Republican primary: scvotes.gov.
- Emerson College Polling, "South Carolina 2026 Poll: No Clear Leader to Replace Late Sen. Graham on Ballot" (fielded July 14 to 15, 2026): primary release.
- ABC News 4, "Rep. Ralph Norman launches bid to succeed Lindsey Graham in Senate" (July 18, 2026): article.
- WIS-TV, "Sen. Darline Graham sends letter to South Carolinians amid Senate run rumors" (July 18, 2026): article.
- Legal Insurrection, "'RUN, DARLINE, RUN!' Trump Backs Darline Graham Nordone for Senate" (July 17, 2026): article.
- Maceopedia, YouTube Short: "I would be an idiot not to at least look at it." Filing for Graham's Senate seat opens July 21.
- Related Maceopedia: Mace's shifting answer on the Graham seat, July 12 · the July 12 media tour clip.
This dispatch catalogs a public filing deadline, published polling, and Mace's own dated statements. It does not predict her decision. Filing closes July 28, 2026.
Read next
July 20, 2026 · Dispatch"I'm not chasing another title, I'm chasing justice": Nancy Mace rules out the Senate race, and with it, public office
On July 20, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace announced in a 64-second video on X that she will not enter the special election for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's Senate seat. 'I want to be straight with you. I'm not running for the US Senate, not because I'm backing down from a fight, but because the one I'm already in matters right now.' The announcement came three days after President Trump endorsed Graham's sister, interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, for the full term. Combined with her June 10 decision not to seek re-election to the House, Mace is now set to leave public office when her term ends in January 2027. This dispatch reproduces the video statement in full, verbatim, alongside the separate written statement she posted with it.
- July 16, 2026 · Dispatch
"So he can go fly a kite", Mace fires back at Timmons over Graham's Senate seat
After Rep. William Timmons said he could not support Nancy Mace or Ralph Norman for Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat and called the rush to claim it 'thirsty,' Mace's on-camera reply to Fox Carolina was blunt: 'So he can go fly a kite.'
- July 12, 2026 · Dispatch
One Sunday, four networks: how Nancy Mace’s answer on Lindsey Graham’s seat changed through the day
A real-footage supercut of Nancy Mace’s July 12, 2026 media tour, the day Sen. Lindsey Graham died. Across CBS, Fox, CNN and her own X account, her answer on whether she would run for his Senate seat moved from grief, to a coy “they pull me back in” tease, to “I’ll certainly take a look,” to “I would be an idiot not to,” to “I’m not pursuing it,” to “there will be time to decide.” Every line is verbatim; readers can judge.
August 23, 2026 · DispatchNancy Mace's Top 5 Political Failures: dead last for governor, the Speaker she toppled for nothing, and one law in nine years, a post office
A catalog of the record. Across nine years in office Nancy Mace built a national brand and almost no results to match it. She finished dead last, fifth of five, in the 2026 Republican primary for governor. She helped throw out a sitting Speaker of the House and got a more MAGA Speaker, three weeks of paralysis, and a revenge primary for her trouble. She lost to Lindsey Graham the one time she ran against him, in 2014, then talked herself out of his seat in 2026 after polling at 10 percent. Of the 192 bills she has sponsored, the only ones enacted rename post offices. And the Trump endorsement she remade her whole career to win went, twice, to her opponents. Every figure and quote below is public and dated.
July 28, 2026 · Dispatch'He believed that showing up mattered': Mace issues a press release as every other SC House Republican attends Graham's funeral
On July 28, 2026, Sen. Lindsey Graham's casket lay in the US Capitol Rotunda and then was carried to Washington National Cathedral for his funeral. Every other South Carolina House Republican was there. Rep. Sheri Biggs and Rep. Joe Wilson presented wreaths at his casket. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman accompanied the South Carolina delegation. Rep. Nancy Mace, who spent two weeks publicly weighing a run for Graham's Senate seat and publicly clashing with him during his lifetime, did not attend. Her office issued a press release statement instead. Filing for the special election primary closed at noon the same day.
- July 20, 2026 · Dispatch
"If you're running for two offices at once, you've already told us who you are": Nancy Mace objects to sitting House members seeking the Senate, without naming Russell Fry
Fifty-nine minutes after Rep. Russell Fry announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate on July 20, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace posted a standalone statement on X, without naming Fry: 'If you're running for two offices at once, you've already told us who you are. That's not about politics anymore - that's about power.' She grounded the objection in House math, warning that a sitting Republican House member who wins the Senate seat in November vacates his seat until next May, narrowing an already thin majority, and writing 'I will never hand Hakeem Jeffries that gift.' Mace is not on the November 2026 ballot herself: she lost the June 9 Republican gubernatorial primary, did not seek reelection to her House seat, and has said her House term ends in January 2027.