Nancy Mace stages desperate plot for Lindsey Graham's Senate seat hours after his death as Trump teases who he'll anoint as successor

By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 18:21, 12 July 2026 | Updated: 18:29, 12 July 2026 After the sudden death of US Senator Lindsey Graham was announced Sunday morning, the race for the US Senate in South Carolina has burst wide open, and it appears Nancy Mace wants in. South Carolina Congresswoman Mace finished last in June's GOP primary for South Carolina Governor, after garnering just 12 percent of the vote. Yet, multiple reports circulated on Sunday morning that Mace was considering re-entering the political arena.  South Carolina's current Governor, Henry McMaster, who is term-limited, will select a temporary replacement for Graham, and that candidate will need to win both a primary and a general election before being seated for a full term in the US Senate. Mace said she was being pulled into the arena, posting a clip of actor Michael Corleone in The Godfather: Part III, captioned with the quote 'Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in…'.   The idea of Mace running for office again was not well-received by conservatives. President Donald Trump teased that he had someone in mind to succeed Graham when asked about the future of the seat on NBC's Meet the Press earlier on Sunday, but declined to provide a name out of respect of his former primary foe turned friend, ally, and golf buddy.   'I have somebody that I think would be great. But I don't want to say it now because, you know, it's too soon with Lindsey,' Trump told Meet the Press moderator Kirsten Welker. Mace participates in a hearing on Capitol Hill in April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC Lindsey Graham and President Donald Trump golf together on November 15, 2025 'I don't want to even talk about anybody. But I do have somebody that I think is really good,' Trump added. Mace's former Republican House colleague and convicted fraudster, George Santos, wrote sarcastically on X, 'Do it! Please I need more s**t posting content.' Conservative author and American Majority CEO Ned Ryun, son of former Kansas Congressman and Olympic runner Jim Ryun, noted on X that no one was pulling Mace into the race. 'Rational people might think, I just got DEAD LAST in a 5 way statewide primary a few weeks ago. Maybe the people of SC don't want me to represent them. Maybe I should hang it up,' Ryun noted,  before adding that the outgoing representative was 'apparently preparing herself for another walk of shame.' Mace's fellow House GOP colleague Joe Wilson, 78, the most senior Republican in the South Carolina congressional delegation, was another name floated as Graham's replacement, but he has opted himself out. Wilson's political campaign account posted on X on Sunday morning that he had spoken to President Trump, when he let him know that his 'goal is to remain in the House to keep his two-vote majority for the American people!!!' Wilson's adopted son, Alan, is likely to be the state's next governor after beating current Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette in the GOP runoff last month. Evette herself could also be floated for the Senate posting, after garnering just over 30 percent of the vote in the runoff election for governor against Alan Wilson. She was the top vote-getter in the state's primary but was unable to coalesce support from the rest of her former primary field in the runoff.  A list of potential Graham successors floated by Politics1 also included Congressman Ralph Norman, who also ran in the GOP gubernatorial primary, as well as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who previously served as the state's governor.  Mace would bring a lot of baggage into the governor's race, aside from a poor performance in the June primary.  She became a major thorn in Trump's side during her push to release the Epstein files in the US House of Representatives during the last year.  Mace has also been accused of being a difficult boss and mistreating her own staff, and she was even filmed having a heated altercation with Charleston airport staff back in her home state of South Carolina. The office of Graham, who had represented South Carolina since 2002, announced in the early hours of Sunday that the senator had, 'passed away from a brief and sudden illness.' A 911 call for 'cardiac arrest' was placed from Graham's residence around 8.30pm, but no official cause of death has been confirmed, according to multiple reports.