Who WON Tonight's RUNOFF?!

[00:03] All right. I think we are doing it live tonight. I had the mute on, of course. All

[00:40] right. Tonight we are watching and running down the historic South Carolina runoff for the late Senator Lindsey Graham's seat. He passed away in July due to a tear in his aortic valve.

[00:54] It's the race is still ongoing and I don't believe it's been called yet. I believe it will be called for Darlene Graham tonight when it is. And I wanted to run down the details since we haven't seen a race like this in over 20 years in South Carolina. We hadn't had a Senate seat open like this since 2004. Senator Graham was elected in 2002.

[01:14] And, you know, there are only 100 of these seats. So every state in the country gets two U.S. senators. That's it. And I'm refreshing all the all the the the poll data coming in, data still coming in. But Darlene is winning in every county. Right. Right now, where necessary, some of the counties are at 10, 15, 20 percent. I'm sure it'll get tighter as it comes in. And I'm not calling it yet, but I wanted to run down how all of this works and how we got where we are today, because it's not often these seats open up. And there's been a lot of money spent in this race. And so tonight, South Carolina finds out who will be the next U.S. senator, which one of them has the job after this. I want to play this clip from Fox News from. This morning with the Republican Party, we pride ourself on being a meritocracy. And if you feel comfortable saying that this was done based on merit, then I'm OK with it. But if you don't think this was a meritocracy and she's only in the position because of her late brother, I think that's a different story.

[02:18] So we just got to take that into consideration. You can't say D.I. and meritocracy and then have someone that is essentially empty vessel on some of the biggest issues. But that's all South Carolina. It's always going to be up to the people to decide on what they want. And tonight they will decide whether you voted for Darlene Graham or if you voted for Ralph Norman. The people at the end of the day will decide whether it's my candidate or somebody else's. The voters of South Carolina got to decide that tonight. And this has been quite the race. Polls closed about an hour ago. They closed at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The state is still counting. And the question about was never really. Ralph Norman or Darlene Graham. The question is, you know, who does this seat belong to? And it belongs to the people. So regardless of the outcome tonight, the voters got to decide, which I think for a lot of us, that's what our beef was all about. We didn't want to see someone appointed and having not earned it, gone through the gauntlet, had the voters not gotten the say of the voters.

[03:19] And tonight the voters actually will get a say because the Senate seat isn't a set of china. It's not an heirloom. You don't pass it down to your family. The voters get a say. And six weeks ago, we didn't know this was going to happen. We're a state of five and a half million people here in South Carolina. And so let's get right to it. So here's we got. I want to be careful because someone's dead. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away on July 11th on a Saturday evening, had a tear to his aortic valve. It was shocking. It was devastating to the state because whether you agree with his politics or not, the man knew his politics. He knew the Senate. He was the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. And when you called him, he picked up the phone. And he answered. He was known for that. He was known to legislate. He was known to negotiate. He was known to play golf with the president and was known to have the president's ear. And here was a guy who was in the thick of it. If there was a fight, Lindsey Graham was always in the room, whether you agree with him or not. And Darlene Graham, his sister, was appointed to serve out his term.

[04:20] It was supposed to be for six months. She was supposed to be a placeholder. And then everything got turned upside down. There were 10 candidates in the race. There was $14 million spent, nine of it just in the last seven to 10 days, two weeks or so. But Darlene Graham, his sister, was appointed two days after the passing of her brother. Really, you know, sort of shocking when it all happened. She finished in the first round of the runoff with 32.7 percent of the vote. And Ralph had 24.7 of the vote. I was just looking at Kaushi and the betting markets. And, man, it wasn't like this earlier tonight. It was more like 60-40, 70-30. And now Ralph's just tanking in the betting markets. I was curious to see if, you know, Kaushi or Polymarket, which one was going to be more accurate. And were they going to be more accurate than the pollsters so far? They have it right right now. I'm sure there's a lot of betting going on right now as the results come in. I think the race is going to tighten up at the end of the day.

[05:20] I mean, there's still plenty of counties to come in. Ralph is leading in Greenville. And the upstate in Anderson. And then Darlene has won damn near everything along the coast. And she's winning the middle part of the state so far. But there's still votes to come in. The incumbent, Darlene Graham, got the backing of the president. He had a huge rally for her on Friday in Myrtle Beach, which is the MAGA capital of the state of South Carolina. That is Horry County in Myrtle Beach. And then he did a tele-rally for her last night. Sixty-seven percent of folks in the initial round of the runoff looked at the candidates. And they went, you know, they went with somebody else. And that is what runoffs are for. Not every state has a runoff. South Carolina is a runoff state. Some states have a plurality. A plurality meaning you don't have the majority, but you got most of the votes. So I think Florida has a plurality. But in our state, if you don't get 50 percent of the vote, and Darlene didn't clear 33 percent in the first round, if you don't get 50 percent of the vote, you go straight into a runoff two weeks later. And so, you know, there's some issues that came up on national security last week.

[06:25] And rightfully so. If we're in the middle of a war, we want a U.S. senator who knows what they're talking about. But she rightfully also said that she was willing to learn and that she was smart. So the honest thing is to be honest. And Darlene did do the honest thing, and I'll give her that. And so you can learn. Everybody can. And there's still months to figure that out. Early voting was interesting because when the early votes started to come in, the upstate, which is where Ralph Norman is from, Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson, York, those areas, Ralph, we believe Ralph was leading in those votes. And then along the coast, it was lower voting. And in fact, you know, quite frankly, we had more votes in early voting this round than in the initial election. So usually when you have these special elections and you have runoffs, usually with each consecutive vote, the vote is smaller and smaller. Like South Carolina voters have been asked four times this summer to vote. We had our initial election on June 9th.

[07:26] Many people had runoffs two weeks later, including the statewide governor's race where I got my ass kicked. And then and then this special election popped up. We had sixty three thousand people vote early versus in June. It was sixty one thousand. So in August and a special election in August, early voting was sixty three thousand votes, which is kind of incredible when you think about it, because in June I was only it was I believe it was 60. Excuse me. Earlier in the month. It was sixty one thousand. This runoff, which you would think consecutively back to back elections, usually the number of voters that come out is smaller than the initial. So it'll be interesting to see what the final turnout tonight at the beginning of August versus middle August. If more people voted in the runoff runoff than in the special election. So I think that it's going to be really fascinating. And that'll be the attention. If we had more voters in the runoff than in the initial election, that'll be because of the president. That'll be because of his rally. That'll be because of the attention. That he drew to the state in this election.

[08:26] And it'll be due to the nine million dollars spent in the runoff. Darlene Graham, there were packs out there that were that were spending seven million for her. Here we go. Outside packs for Darlene Graham were seven million. Outside packs for Ralph Norman were two million. Basically, Darlene Graham packs were spending outspending Ralph by three and a half by three and a half points, three and a half times. Not points, but three and a half times. What she was spending. There was a lot of outside money. Senator Graham had about two point three million dollars left over in his war chest when he passed away. Darlene Graham couldn't spend that money. It wasn't hers, but his campaign gave the money to the NRC. And I believe they they spent that money on Darlene. And then there was outside money that came in. Millions of dollars, seven million of it. And it's interesting because just six years ago when Senator Graham was running for reelection in 2020. Do you remember how much money was spent? It was Lindsey Graham versus Jamie Harrison.

[09:27] And it was over two hundred million dollars between the two of them. Graham raised one hundred and twenty million. No, it's one hundred and ten million. And Jamie Harrison raised one hundred and twenty million. Lindsey was out raised by Jamie Harrison by about ten million dollars. He'd mean the fact that both of them raised over one hundred million for a U.S. Senate seat is crazy. Because when I show you the numbers for the amount of money raised for this seat tonight, it was less than a million dollars between the two candidates. Darlene raised three hundred and forty six thousand dollars. Forty seven thousand of that coming from outside, probably the party. Ralph Norman raised nine hundred and thirty four thousand dollars. But four hundred thousand of that came from him personally. He raised over half a million dollars. That's respectable in two weeks. And he out raised Darlene. That's what I mean in the money race for just candidate to candidate. But think about that. Six years ago, Lindsey Graham raised over one hundred million.

[10:30] His opponent raised over one hundred million for a U.S. Senate seat. This race will go down each candidate raising combined less than than a million dollars.

[10:40] That's crazy. And it'll go to show if Trump, you know, if his candidate wins tonight, how strong his endorsement is in the race.

[10:50] For South Carolina Senate seat. I'm pulling up the voting again to see what's going on with the Republican right now. Oops, sorry. The results right now. It looks like she's still in the lead. I think she's going to win this thing. I'm looking at the counties that are coming in and she's getting all the right counties. And she got the coast and she got the middle part of the state. And while we don't have quite 50 percent in yet, everything's going in her direction.

[11:19] All right.

[11:22] I, you know, I have said on this, I guess on Friday night, Trump held the rally for her in Myrtle Beach. There was a nice crowd. Pitbull was playing. That was that was good.

[11:34] And yet there were lots of people. Tim Scott was there. There were other members, I believe, of Trump's cabinet. Jenny Honeycutt was there as well. People rallying for her. I was not there because I was supporting Ralph Norman. I voted with the president. But I also voted. I believe that endorsements are a recommendation. They're not a transfer. They're not a transfer of ownership. And you saw a lot of conservatives come out for Ralph. And sometimes the president gets good advice and sometimes he doesn't. And if he wins this one tonight, it'll go to show how strong his endorsement is in our state right now in Congress. And what some people don't realize is that, you know, there are only 100 Senate seats. There are 100 most powerful people in the country, maybe even the world. Every state gets two. So if you're a small state like Rhode Island. With a small population, you get two U.S. Senate seats. A population like California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, large states, they only get two. In the House, it's decided by population. So every state has a different number of House members. So we're talking about the 100 most powerful people in America when you're electing a U.S.

[12:36] senator. But we had this election. And, you know, honestly, the voters said in the Republican primary, of course, due to polling, that 53 percent of them said that endorsement, the endorsements don't matter to them. And they were going to decide how they wanted to vote. And we'll see tonight at the end of the night if the endorsement did matter. I think it's going to matter. The last poll headed into the election tonight came from the Trafalgar group. And it had them head to head, toe to toe, damn near even. And it had Darlene Graham at 47.9 percent and Ralph Norman at 47.8 percent. So this actually might be a real nail biter as we wait for the results. To come in tonight. I don't believe that the race has been called just yet.

[13:22] And we're going to pull it up. We're going to pull the results up again because I'm just getting refreshed and find out when it's going to be called. But, you know, there were lots of different polls a week ago. Ralph Norman was up by double digits by 10 points with voters and then by up by 12 points with those who were leaning towards Ralph in this thing. And if this comes down and it's really close or it's a 10-point flip where Darlene wins by 10 and Ralph loses by 10, that will go to show you the power of a Trump endorsement is real here. So three candidates endorsed, multiple candidates that have endorsed this summer haven't won by the president three in the last two weeks. But this will be a real bellwether, especially with the war going on, on what that actually means here in South Carolina. And also in the United States. So I think in other places. And I want to talk about the part of the story that I think people skip past. But Lindsey Graham passed away on a Saturday night.

[14:23] And then this seat was by Monday. It was already picked. The governor had already picked someone to replace him and fill the remainder of her term for six months. Nobody had voted for her, which is why I think you saw a big backlash in the initial election because people don't want to be told what to do. They actually want to have a voice. And people have a voice. Nobody had voted for her. And the voters wanted to have their say. And in the initial runoff, 67 percent of the people, 67 percent in change because she hadn't quite reached 33, over 60 percent, over 67 percent, just over 67 percent of the people who voted, voted for somebody else. And I think that was in backlash, early backlash to he passed away two days later. There was an appointment that was made. And 5 million people didn't have a say. We're a state. We're a state with 5.5 million people. And I want to be careful because this really isn't about Darlene. This is about the people. You put any name you want in a chair. It could be anyone. It could be Donald Duck. It could be Mickey Mouse appointed two days later.

[15:26] People were going to respond in a way where they weren't going to pick the initial candidate that the powers that be wanted. And that initial appointment only runs through January 3rd. So for basically almost six months. And nobody had a say for anything longer than that. And that's what elections are for. So everyone on television, they're looking at the vote counts like I am. And, you know, we're going to see where where it comes in. But she's she's winning in places. I honestly didn't think she would win. And it's interesting because along the coast in Myrtle Beach, it was definitely they definitely had lower turnout. But the thing about the lower turnout in Myrtle Beach. Is these are MAGA voters. These are Trump voters, Trump voters, MAGA voters. They love to vote on Election Day. If you're MAGA, you're not voting early.

[16:19] But you are you are voting on Election Day. And I think the early tell where we were hearing stories about Anderson, Greenville and York County, the counties that Spartanburg that would lean for Ralph voting early and higher numbers is because maybe that those were less or fewer MAGA voters. When I was running for governor, everyone that I've talked to who was MAGA was voting on Election Day. And we're seeing that. So in Horry County right now, I just pulled it up. Fifty-five percent of the votes are in.

[16:52] Darlene Graham won Horry County, which is one of the largest counties in the state.

[16:58] So far with fifty-five percent of the votes in she's at seventy three percent. I mean, that may mean that Trump's with the MAGA voters, Trump's endorsement is gold. Now, it means more than anything. Norman came in at twenty seven percent now in Greenville County. Again, one of the largest counties in the state. Only twelve percent of the votes are in. And Ralph is at sixty eight percent so far. And Darlene Graham is in at thirty two percent so far.

[17:29] I'm having keep it coming. I got people texting me the you know, the results that are coming in. But that's where we are. And so Greenville and Horry, if they're exactly opposite, it's really going to come in. It's going to come down to some of the smaller, some of the rural counties tonight. And who's going to decide this race? Small towns might decide the race in Charleston County. I'm in Charleston right now. Tonight, I'm filming from Charleston filming live. By the way, this is my first time going live on. Thirty five percent of the votes are in. And no surprise. Darlene Graham is in at fifty eight percent. And Ralph Norman is at forty two percent right now. Now it's you know, this county.

[18:09] Is it's it's kind of finicky. We are conservative, but we're got a little libertarian bent. We have a lot of military retirees here. That sort of thing. And also, you know, Kamala Harris won this county Charleston County by eleven points in twenty twenty four. She won. So depending on where you are. But these are again, these are this is a Republican primary. These the most conservative people of our base that are getting out to vote so far in Berkeley County. Also in my district, forty percent of votes are in. And Darlene is at sixty six percent. Norman's at thirty four percent. This is going heavily towards Darlene. I'm quite frankly surprised the race has not been called so far.

[18:51] You know, again, Ralph was outspent three and a half times. Nine million dollars in the end by super PACs by outside money. He only had two. So the people writing the biggest checks really spent the most money. And I have to tell you, every time I turned on my computer, I saw a Darlene Graham at an anti Ralph Norman. Ad every time I turned on every time I turned on the computer. So all right. So as we get there, early voting ran the last three days of last week, Wednesday through Friday. And it was more people voting in the runoff than in the initial sixty one thousand at the beginning of August for the initial election with ten candidates and sixty three percent.

[19:30] Sixty three thousand people voted in the runoff. So two thousand more people voted early in the runoff than they did. In the initial election in the August eleventh primary. That's interesting because usually it's backwards. Usually, you know, with the next with the next race, with the runoff, it's going to be fewer voters, which means tonight it's not a story about people staying home. It's about people actually getting out and vote. The same number of South Carolinians actually more showed up early. And if those numbers beat, I mean, if those numbers stand true, we're going to have historic turnout in a special election here tonight. Thank you. The electorate didn't shrink. The electorate actually grew, which is quite unusual. Greenville led the early voting with just over seven thousand early votes. Ori Lexington, Spartanburg and others came in behind that. But the raw count isn't the story. The raw count just tells you which counties are big, basically. And, you know, Ralph's going to win Greenville and obviously Darlene is going to win Ori and Ori sort of the bellwether for the rest of the state.

[20:31] That's where MAGA is. If MAGA shows up, if MAGA gets out, gets out and votes. That's who's going to win the rest of the state. I sort of see Ori County as a bellwether for the rest of the state. And so stay with me here. There's a specific piece of real estate, too, we should talk about. The Ori County Myrtle Beach region is where Russell Fry lives. Russell ran for the U.S. Senate. He was one of those ten candidates. And when he didn't make the runoff, he dropped out. He endorsed Darlene Graham. Russell Fry is the guy that beat Tom Rice. Tom Rice voted to impeach the president. And so that seat got Tom Rice got ousted by Russell Fry, who is very conservative, who is very MAGA, who the president got right behind him. And he flipped that seat, I guess, a cycle ago, two cycles ago in 2022. The president had a rally in Myrtle Beach on Friday and then a Telluride rally on Monday.

[21:31] And nobody flies to a rally if they don't win. They don't think they're going to win. So I'm assuming the president had good polling and they went into Ori because they were looking for the same voters to try to get out there. And I can't believe AP has not called the race yet. Somebody's got to call this race soon. I'm not calling it. I don't have it in front of me, but I feel pretty close that Darlene is going to get this one.

[21:52] Now, Greenville is the most prosperous, the most populous county in the state. It usually casts the most votes. So even if Ralph edges her out by slightly less of a percentage in Greenville County, he still has a chance if she ousts him in Ori the way that it's going. In the June primary, a plurality of voters in Greenville picked Lynch over Lindsey Graham in the Senate race. Lindsey Graham actually lost Greenville County. And Ralph did well in the governor's race. Greenville County is not a swing county, but he did well in the governor's race in the upstate. If Norman wins tonight, it's because the upstate showed up twice.

[22:32] And the PD didn't. But the PD is showing up tonight. And I think that's the thing that people forget with MAGA voters. MAGA voters, they show up on Election Day. It's getting closer. So let's check out the scoreboard right now where we are. I see that it is, where is my live look at the results? Here we go. We've got to refresh the page.

[22:59] And it's 53 to 47 right now. If you can see that, I'll make that bigger for you to see. 53, 52 to 48, 49. Well, this actually, this actually might be a nail biter. It's even closer than I realized it was going to be. Yeah, it might be a nail biter. If Ralph wins tonight, it's going to be because the upstate showed up not once, but it showed up twice. The biggest Republican county in South Carolina is one that Lindsey Graham lost in his own primary in June. And in the governor's race, you know, we had such a big, we had a five-person race for governor. The governor's field, Ralph did great. Ralph Norman won in Greenville, the largest county in South Carolina. He won Greenville County in the governor's race in the first round. He beat both candidates that made it into the runoff in Greenville. So Greenville County, the upper part of the state, will be, will be Ralph's rally, rally cry.

[24:08] Let's go back to early voting. So the pink ones, that's the upstate. That's Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson. That is Ralph's strong suit. And that's where, if he wins this, it's going to be because of Greenville County, as it comes in as the largest county in the state of South Carolina. So we're watching Greenville. She's stomping him in Horry, though. I mean, Darlene is just, crushing it in Myrtle Beach right now. Totally crushing it in Myrtle Beach. So Spartanburg was the only other county Lindsey Graham lost in June. And I imagine that we're going to see Ralph crush it there. She's crushing it along the coast. And in my district, Ralph is crushing it in the upstate. So that's sort of interesting.

[24:54] I want to tell you something about Ralph Norman that almost nobody covering this race tonight is going to say. And I, you know, I endorsed him. Eleven weeks ago, Ralph ran for governor. He came in third. Then Senator Graham passed away. And by August, he was on a different ballot running for a different office. And the cheap version of the story writes itself. Half the Internet has already written it. When the guy loses, the guy shops for another job. When one door closes, another one opens. And the cheap version is sort of wrong. Ralph Norman gave up a safe house seat. He gave up a safe house seat to run for governor and lost. And he didn't have to do this. He didn't have to step into the arena. But he stepped into the arena and he did it anyway. He's unemployed come January, no matter what the outcome. Just like myself. And I know something about that primary field because I was in that governor's race. And here's the part I think that really matters. There's an argument that a man who came in third in June has no business running for the U.S. Senate in November.

[25:54] And I understand that argument. But I don't buy it. Because he lost. Here's why. Third place in a five-man race in a primary in June and second in a 10-way Senate primary, that's winning.

[26:09] That's not failure. That's winning. That's a man with might. That's a man with energy. And the same voter telling you otherwise is just not telling you the truth. I do want to talk a little bit about who both we have to get in. We'll talk a little bit about Darlene. Darlene was born in Central. She was born in Central South Carolina. Which is the upper part of the state. And her rags to riches story is really kind of incredible. Her parents died. And when they died, Lindsey Graham took care of her, took her in, adopted her. And, you know, they always say that Lindsey Graham, they make fun of him because he was never married, never had any children. And they say he wasn't a family man. But he was a family man. He was the family, the only family that Darlene had when she was growing up. She's also the first female U.S. senator from the state of South Carolina.

[27:03] And she made history when she was appointed as the first female senator. But if she wins tonight, if Darlene Graham wins tonight, she will be the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the state of South Carolina. And it's crazy that it's taken over 100 years since women's suffrage, since women had the right to vote, to to

[27:27] to elect a female U.S. senator. But, you know, she grew up in a family that ran a restaurant, a bar and a liquor store. So I would imagine she's pretty tough. And to walk into this Senate appointment thinking you're only going to be here for six months to replace your brother for six months and then not five days later be standing in the Oval Office listening to the president ask you to run for the U.S. Senate and tell you he's going to get behind you. That really, I think, molded her. I think she's just starting to mold a person. And it shows you the metal that she's made up. And if she wins tonight, I'm going to back her. I'm going to back Darlene if she wins tonight.

[28:06] More votes coming in. Greenville, Ralph is keeping his lead in the upstate with 47 percent in the largest county in the state.

[28:15] And, you know, tonight. And tonight's not the finish line, by the way, for the U.S. Senate seat. There are 70 days until the midterm election, 70 days. So whoever wins this tonight has to go up against Annie Andrews. Annie Andrews has been running for the November general election since June. She's been running against a Republican. I think she's running and trying to be a moderate Democrat, and she's anything but. And we'll get into that in a minute. But Annie Andrews won the Democrat primary outright in June. She had no runoff. She is a pediatrician from Charleston, South Carolina, and she ran against me in 2022, and she lost. So for any candidate, either one, Darlene or Ralph, going up against Annie Andrews in November, I know exactly how she runs. And I know because I've been on the other side of it. I know how to crush an Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who believes in gender-affirming care. If you don't know what gender-affirming care is, it is transgender surgery for, I mean, transgender surgery, period.

[29:23] But she was a proponent for transgender surgery for children. Make that make sense. Okay, more Horry County votes. 75% of those are in, and Horry County goes 73% for Darlene, 27% for Ralph, 75%. She's killing it. That number's not going to change in the last 25% of votes coming in. Now, the obvious part about the general election in November for this seat is that South Carolina is a red state. Yes, indeed we are, but Annie Andrews is raising money. Trump carried the state by nearly 20 points in 2024. The Republican nominee is a heavy favorite in November, and I expect the Republican to win, whether it's Darlene or Ralph. I don't think it matters. But look at the last time the seat was on a ballot.

[30:10] Lindsey Graham won re-election in 2020 with 54%. Now, $200 million. $200 million was spent on that race. 54% is a comfortable win, but it's not a coronation. And, you know, so we have to be mindful of that. And he got that 54% being the most expensive Senate campaign in the history of the United States at the time. And in a presidential year in a state that Trump carried by 11 points. Trump carried South Carolina by 11 points in 2020.

[30:48] All right. So we're now sitting at 65% of votes are in. It's 52% versus 48%.

[30:58] That's where the race is right now with 65% of the votes. This is going to be a close one. I do think that Darlene pulls it out tonight.

[31:09] And I think that that's who we're going to see on the ballot in November. I could be wrong if more votes. We'll see how the rest of the vote goes. We'll see how the rest of the votes come in. But it's August and we have four months to get ready for November, November's election. And hopefully this doesn't turn into a hundred million dollar general election fight in November. No one's called this thing yet, this race yet. So I want to tell you about one rule. It's one sentence in South Carolina's code of laws. It's section 7-17-280. And tonight it might matter more than any other candidate. So by state law, if you win by less than 1%, there is an automatic. Recount of the ballots. Every state is different the way that they do election law. But in our state, if you get less than 1%, according to the law, it's not may, but the state has to. And nobody voted on that. That is just a law for the total votes cast. Now, if you lose by more than 1%, let's say you lose by 1% and one vote in the state of South Carolina.

[32:14] There is no automatic recount. And you cannot, as a candidate, ask for a recount. It's only if you if you lose by the narrow margin of 1% or less. So 250,000 votes have been counted so far. There are about a hundred and thirty thousand votes remaining. Many of those are going to be in Greenville County, which is the biggest county in the state. Not all of Greenville has come in. That is a county where Ralph is killing it. He's crushing it right now. And Darlene is is crushing the rest of it. The state, particularly along the coast and the MAGA regions of the state from Myrtle Beach all the way down to Hilton Head in my district. My district is going for Darlene as well. So if you're a candidate and you win by one, you lose by 1% and one point, you can't ask for a recount. It's only if you lose by it's only if you lose by by less than 1%.

[33:08] That's weird. OK, so I'm out of focus. I'm going to try to reset this back. All right.

[33:16] So one side, one vote outside of that margin and they will they'll do their they won't do the recount. So one side inside of that margin and they'll do the recount. So 1% of the total. So if 200,000 people voted today, that window is 2000 votes right now. Two hundred and fifty thousand people voted. If Ralph wins by less than twenty five hundred votes at two hundred fifty thousand votes, then they would do the recount. And so that's really the number one thing. That's the number to watch as he win by. Does she win or he win by 1% or more or by less than if it's by less there will be. Now we've got three counties that have no votes yet. I believe is Edgefield, Allendale, Jasper, Dorchester is starting to come in now. Dorchester will go for Darlene. I don't even have to know the counts of that. But that Dorchester is MAGA mania that is MAGA country and Dorchester is going to go for Darlene tonight.

[34:13] So. All right. So here we go.

[34:17] Let's go check out the betting markets. What are they doing? Anybody have any guesses with the betting markets are doing? I can't even see Ralph on the can't even see Ralph on the picture. Let's see if we can see this now.

[34:30] He's it's tanked and they've got her winning.

[34:34] And we'll see if it comes out as close as Trafalgar had it Trafalgar had them neck and neck the sieving.

[34:44] Let's go back to that. Okay. All right. A couple more things. I want to share with you tonight because the race has not been called yet. I think it's really important to understand who we're going to be going up against this fall in November. Whether it's Darlene or if it's going to be Ralph. The woman is named Annie Andrews. She's a Democrat. Oh, that's unfortunate. We're wearing the same color on the same screen right now. I ran against Annie Andrews in 2022. And I stopped her. And the general election. And do you want to know? Do you want to know why? Hold on crazy there. You'll have an opportunity to read it and built on lies and they are doing real harm to children in this community. Let's hold it crazy there. You'll have an opportunity to read it and built on lies and they are doing real harm to children in this community. But this was a debate that I had with Annie Andrews back in 2022 for the November general election. I said earlier in the program.

[35:45] Annie Andrews was a pediatrician is a pediatrician. She is a pediatrician who believes in gender affirming care. Now gender affirming care is the transgender surgery as a pediatrician. She believes in gender affirming care for children. And that means we're talking about cutting off private parts of kids. If a boy thinks he's a girl because he's been brainwashed by TikTok or brainwashed by social media or brainwashed by his parent and he wants to cut his willy-nilly off. She says or believes because she believes in gender affirming care that that's okay that you should be able to do that. And I wholeheartedly oppose that. I think most people do most Independence obviously most conservatives many Democrats in the general election in 2022. When I won that seat my seat had only in redistricting only gotten one point better. I won by 14 points in that race. And I largely ran my election on gender affirming care.

[36:47] So my staff is telling me I do remind everybody to subscribe. This is my first live program. I've done a couple of podcasts for fun so far. We're enjoying it. I'll be doing this, you know, a couple times a week between now and the end of the year before I leave Congress. I have enjoyed it. I've got to talk about the WNBA. I've gotten to talk about Ennis Cantor freedom. I've gotten to talk about the radical Islam. I don't know if you saw today. But the Girl Scouts. I have a special pen. If you learn about Islam and I want to know if they forced them to wear the hijab or a burqa to get that metal and the Girl Scouts will get into the Girl Scouts later this week and the indoctrination of children into radical Islam. It is happening before our eyes. I've gotten to cover a lot of topics in the last two weeks and I've had a lot of fun doing it. But if you don't subscribe and you don't comment in the comment section, I won't know what you want us to talk about. Or what you want us to cover when we go back into session next week. I'm going to cover some topics about what we're actually doing in Congress.

[37:49] What it actually means expect a primer on the Save Act the Save America Act. I want to break it down technically for you on why it'll never pass. It's not happening and I don't care what anybody tells you on the television or on social media or in the news Republicans are not going to pass the Save Act in the Senate. It is not going to get to the president's desk to be signed into law and the fault of that. Is going to be the fault of Republicans particularly the female Republicans in the US Senate. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, but I want to be clear tonight. This whole show I've been talking to you about a Senate seat. It belongs to the voters. That is why over 67% of the voters in the first part of August when this first election was held on August 11th voted for somebody else. They didn't vote for Trump's preferred candidate because voters wanted to have a say they were pushing back against the appointment of Lindsey Graham's sister to the seat.

[38:49] But now that voters get to have a say I got to have some water. I've been talking for 40 minutes.

[38:57] But now that voters get to have a say you see where it's coming down to the wire and voters just used it on on something. They're using their vote on someone I didn't pick and that's okay. I don't get to like the answer to an election just because I voted that way or if it goes my way I have to live with the outcome of the election of Darlene Graham wins tonight. I'm going to support her if Darlene Graham needs tips on how the house works or needs a partner in the house in the next four months before I end my term in my tenure. I am going to help her just like I would help Ralph. There are 32,000 votes left statewide.

[39:38] Excuse me a hundred and eleven thousand votes. That was a typo a hundred and eleven thousand votes have are remaining the race still has not been called as of yet. I need you to subscribe if I asked for you to do one thing tonight. I want you to subscribe to YouTube so you can get the these programs and and so that you can comment. If you're not subscribed you can't comment. Six weeks ago Darlene Graham held this seat because one man handed it to her and that was the governor of South Carolina. He made a phone call and made Lindsey Graham sister a United States Senator and not one of the voters was consulted and that's why 67 percent of the people voted against her and the initial Ron. That was my whole objection. You know my whole opposition to her in the beginning was because voters didn't voters didn't get a say. It was a family member. It was not you know it was not us making the decision. It was the mechanism by which it had happened and tonight the mechanism of the appointment is ending.

[40:38] The voters get a say hundreds of thousands of voters get a say. And two hours ago she had this seat because a governor gave it to her. But after tonight if she wins tonight it looks like she's going to win tonight after tonight. She will have earned this seat fair and square. She will have done the work in an election. She will have entered the arena in an election. She took all the punches and all the punch lines and did it. And that's one thing she can say.

[41:14] The race has not been called yet but folks at the Darlene Graham victory party have just started filling into the ballroom where she's expected to speak. I imagine they've seen the results of the rest of the state as we're waiting for them to come in and she'll call it for herself. But you know a few weeks ago nobody knew who Darlene Graham was. And and now we do. So Darlene Graham I want to say congratulations to you and Senator. I mean that. You've earned it tonight. And when she says that she's going to learn on the job. Yes I I believe you and I will be there to support you in that endeavor because we can't have the South Carolina U.S. Senate seat go to a pediatrician who believes in gender affirming care for kids. We can't have that. That's unholy. And the one thing I want the I want folks to hear tonight that are in the U.S. Senate particularly Darlene Graham. Darlene Graham there is homework.

[42:14] South Carolina is home to Paris Island. Paris Island is where we make Marines.

[42:22] And that's in my district that's in my congressional district. And if we decide to go to war whether it's in Tehran or in the Indo-Pacific region where a lot of our Marines are stationed right now we have people all over the world but particularly in the Indo-Pacific region where they are. We have the Charleston port that moves cargo for the entire southeast and around the world. What happens in the Strait of Hormuz you know matters to our ships and to our our ports here along the coast. We have a shipbuilding industrial base in this country that we currently can't keep up with. We have airmen and airwomen at Shaw Air Force Base you know and foreign policy isn't meant to be a quiz but there are enormous decisions that will have to be made in the next four months potentially. And there's you know only four months before the next defense authorization authorization cycle.

[43:14] And that's the window it's a four month window to become an expert on some of these issues and you can't become an expert in four months but I know that she is hired and retained Senator Graham's staff and that's going to I think help her in the long run. She's going to show up in November with all those people on her team I know many of those people they are good people they're hardworking people they know their stuff. And I imagine they're going to be briefing her harder now than ever. Before and the harder part is that she's not going to enjoy just this one she's she's going to be hearing from people all across the state outside groups have put in millions of dollars.

[43:53] And you know she's got a lot of work to do and she's going to do that work. I think she'll work very hard. She said she would she said she would learn and but we can't take anything for granted. And so I'm going to be working very hard between now and November to ensure that the voters.

[44:10] Know who. Annie. Andrews is and we will do a primer on her after Labor Day. And we will talk about all of the crazy positions that she has taken. She's not a moderate Democrat. She is a radical Democrat that Darlene Graham is going to be going up against. And you know to Senator Graham I want to say congratulations. You want it fair and square and you want it for yourself. Now it's alone and same as it is for everybody else who's ever held that seat. The voters have entrusted you to do the best job you possibly can. I don't want to spend the next four months at unity rallies and unity parties for South Carolina Republicans. We got to go to the Met. Kids are going back to school. We have the election 70 days away in November and we have to push back against radicals.

[45:11] We have to push back against radicals. I mean we just we just we have to. I'm calling the race. If nobody else has called the race. I'm calling the race that darling one.

[45:20] Congratulations Darlene Graham. I will be with you in the trenches in November and I will be educating every single voter Republican Democrat independent alike on just to Annie. Andrews actually is she has as radical as some of these Democratic Socialists of America who are running. today. And we're going to do our best to expose every single one of those positions and help you. God bless.