Senate hopefuls make final pitch to Upstate GOP voters before primary 12%
By Bella Carpentier7%
8/7/2026, 8:24:36 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Hasty Generalization, and Overconfidence Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 7% saturation with 42 hits. Analysis detected 263 faulty-reasoning hits from 603 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.4% and a BS Rank of 12% (27,044 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 88.40% of the article peer group.
Three Republican candidates for a special Senate primary attended a forum in Greenville.
The special election was called following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham.
Candidates discussed supporting Donald Trump's agenda and advancing conservative legislation.
A runoff election is likely due to the large number of candidates in the race.
Three candidates running in the special Senate GOP primary made their pitches to Upstate Republican voters in Greenville on Friday, Aug.
7.
The Fourth District Republican Club, First Monday in Greenville and FOX Carolina organized the “Road to Washington” breakfast at the City Club of Greenville.
The event featured numerous Republican Senate candidates, who were given the chance to explain their campaign platforms to Upstate voters before the Aug. 11 election.
More: Today is last day for early voting for SC Senate race.
Who can vote
Former Gov.
Mark Sanford, U.S.
Reps.
Ralph Norman, R-District 5, and Russell Fry, R-District 7, attended the forum.
Sen.
Darline Graham, R-South Carolina, and Greenville businessman Mark Lynch were also invited but were unable to attend.
Some Senate candidates already serve in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
The Senate has 100 members, compared to 435 members of the House.
Each candidate talked about how they wanted to leverage being a part of the Senate to advance conservative legislation.
Norman said he would be a vocal advocate for moving America First bills forward if he is elected.
“We can pass all the bills we want in the House.
It’s not going anywhere in the Senate,” Norman said.
“It’s just where good bills go to die.”
Norman and Fry each painted the Democratic Party as radical and merging with socialist politics.
Norman said he believes the country is headed into a “moral crisis,” while Fry talked about wanting to be a fighter in Washington against the “radical left.”
“The challenge of today is trying to convince the Gen Z population that this is between capitalism and faith and freedom — or socialism,” Fry said.
Fry also addressed why he is running for both the Senate and House.
Fry had launched his reelection campaign to the House before Lindsey Graham’s death, and there is a chance his seat would be vacant if he is elected to both seats.
The congressman had faced criticism for possibly weakening the Republican majority in the House if his seat is vacant.
Fry insisted that he does not believe Congressional District 7 would ever go blue.
“I think voter choice is important, and I feel confident (when) the legislature says they’ve got tools in their toolbox to resolve that,” Fry said.
“The Seventh Congressional District, by the way, that ain’t going blue anytime.”
Each candidate talked about their support of President Donald Trump and how they would deliver on his agenda.
Sanford fielded a question about his current relationship with Trump, given that the president endorsed another candidate over Sanford in the 2018 midterms.
Sanford said he agrees with Trump about 90% of the time, and his voter record in Congress reflected that.
He added that he thinks dissent is an important piece of creating solutions.
“We get a time to agree and disagree, and it’ll be okay,” Sanford said.
“In fact, we can be made stronger.”
Candidates have until polls close at 7 p.m. on Aug. 11 to win over voters.
Because of the number of candidates in the race, a runoff election on Aug. 25 is likely between the two candidates who earn the most votes.
Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics.
Contact her at bcarpentier@gannett.com
Speakers
3speakers36%attributed speech387writer words
Selected voice
58%flagged-word coverageRussell Fry
90 attributed words42% of attributed speech3.9% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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