'Hard pass': MAGA explodes over decision that could upend deep-red midterm race

Members of the MAGA movement are raging against an "idiotic" decision that could upend a solidly Republican-safe midterm race, per The New Republic, with some giving a "hard pass" to an unexpected new candidate.

Following the recent and sudden passing of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the state's governor, Henry McMaster, appointed his younger sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to serve out the remainder of his current term, which is set to end in January. Nordone, whom Graham helped raise after their parents passed away when she was just 13, initially expressed no interest in officially entering the GOP special election to potentially fill her brother's seat properly.

After an endorsement from President Donald Trump, however, she began singing a different tune, confirming in a Monday interview with Sean Hannity that she would officially be joining the race.

“I have been praying a lot, talking to my family... I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes, absolutely,” Nordone said. “I’ve made a decision: I’m in.”

As The New Republic highlighted in a Tuesday report, this development in the South Carolina Senate race drew withering reactions from several prominent figures in the MAGA and right-wing media sphere.

“Hard pass. Birthright senatorship is idiotic,” Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist news site, wrote in a post to X.

“Trump continues to fill the Swamp with the worst congressional creatures, including his predictable endorsement of Darline Graham,” former Virginia Representative and chair of the House Freedom Caucus Bob Good wrote in his own post to X. “Are there worse criteria than 1) family name, and 2) pledged unconditional and unconstitutional allegiance and obedience to the president?”

“It didn’t take Lindsey Graham’s sister very long to go from ‘thank you for this placeholder appointment to honor my brother until an election can be held’ to ‘you know what? I kind of like sitting in this Senate seat. Like a lot. I think I’ll stay for life, like my brother did,'" Glenn Greenwald, one of the co-founders of The Intercept, observed in another X post.

MAGA outrage against Nordone's decision further signals that this South Carolina race could be another where Trump's grip on the Republican voting base begins to slip. Politico noted in a Tuesday report that "South Carolina Republicans aren’t sure Trump will pass" the test of his power in the state, with other GOP candidates "seeing an opening in a race with a highly untested candidate."