Sibling Succession Spotlight: Darline Graham Seeks South Carolina Senate Seat Once Held by Brother Lindsey

When Darline Graham was appointed last month to the South Carolina Senate seat vacated by her late brother, Lindsey Graham, she became the first sister to directly succeed a sibling in Congress.

Family dynasties are a fixture of American politics. Elected offices up to the presidency have frequently passed from one relative to another. Roughly 30 senators have served alongside a sibling in Congress, and more than 40 women—including four in South Carolina—have directly succeeded their late husbands.

Direct sibling successions, however, remain rare.

Graham, a disability rights advocate, shared a close bond with her brother, who never married or had children. Lindsey Graham was pursuing a fifth Senate term when he died in July at age 71. On Tuesday, his sister faces Representative Ralph Norman, a longtime conservative lawmaker, in a special Republican primary runoff for the nomination.

Although Graham has never held elected office, questions regarding her political inexperience have intensified since she acknowledged during a recent televised debate that she was “not that informed on national security.”

Nevertheless, her name recognition and family ties provide a time-tested “leg up,” according to Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College.

“It gives you a shot you might not otherwise get,” Nyhan said. “We often have these parasocial relationships with elected officials. We feel like we know them, and that may carry over to their relatives.”

In Texas’ solidly Republican 22nd Congressional District, Trever Nehls is the GOP nominee to replace his retiring twin brother, Representative Troy Nehls. Both Graham and Nehls have secured the endorsement of former President Trump.

Several congressional seats have passed directly from brother to brother. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican and former FBI agent, moved from California to Pennsylvania and first won the House seat left open by his retiring older brother, Michael, in 2016.

Representative Mario Díaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, switched districts in 2010 to win the more Republican-leaning seat his brother, Lincoln Díaz-Balart, had represented since 1993.

Former Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas launched his congressional career in 1997 after his older brother, Tim, vacated his House seat for a successful Senate run.

Morris K. Udall won a 1961 special election to fill the Arizona congressional seat vacated by his older brother Stewart, who was appointed Interior Secretary by President John F. Kennedy. Udall, a prominent liberal voice and one-time Democratic presidential candidate, held the seat until his retirement in 1991.

In 1946, Democrat Sam J. Ervin Jr. won a special election for the North Carolina congressional seat left open after his brother Joseph died by suicide. Ervin later became a senator and led the Senate Watergate Committee, whose inquiry precipitated the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

Siblings in Congress were common in the late 18th and early 19th centuries but grew rarer around the Civil War and even scarcer over the last century, according to James Feigenbaum, an economic historian at Boston University who studies family connections in Congress.

In 1871, Senator Willard Saulsbury of Delaware sought re-election amid concerns about his erratic behavior, facing a challenge from not one but two of his brothers.

Eli Saulsbury won and remained in office for the next 18 years.

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