It was 2:35 am et Sunday.
The phone rang, yanking me out of deep slumber.
Calls like these are never good.
In the split second before I answered the phone, my mind traveled to the obvious place for any journalist who covers Capitol Hill and gets a call at that hour.
Surely it was about former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
McConnell has been out of service and nowhere to be found for weeks â after being hospitalized with an unspecified illness. The internet was rife with conspiracy theories and conjecture. And, considering the dearth of information, I suspected the worst.
My longtime colleague Jodie Curtis was on the line when I picked up. Jodie is a senior figure at Fox, forced into weekend overnight assignment editor duty because of an illness. Jodie calling to tell me that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was dead.
“Graham?” I asked incredulously. “Not McConnell?”
Emerging from my stupor, I instinctively presumed this might be about the infirm, Kentucky Republican. Youd have better odds presuming that overnight call was about McConnell than hitting an exacta wheel at Churchill Downs.
My instincts immediately kicked in.
What if this was psy-ops by the Russians, Chinese or Iranians. A rouse. A hoax. A hack.
I told my colleague to just wait a moment while we confirmed. It would be easy to get this wrong.
Back in the 1990s, lawmakers “killed” comedian Bob Hope on the House floor, prematurely announcing his death during special orders speeches. Yours truly â and everyone else in Washington â prematurely reported the death of the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH). She suffered from a catastrophic brain aneurism. Yet after they removed the Congresswoman from life support, she continued to live for a few hours before dying.
However, it became clear that Lindsey Graham was indeed dead. I was quickly on the air. When asked about the shock of Graham passing, I invoked a Native American adage: Death comes. And its always out of season.
Lindsey Graham was gone. But who would succeed him on Capitol Hill?
Think all in the family. At least for now.
Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL) and Tim Scott (R-SC) both implored the late senators kid sister Darline Graham to follow her brother. President Trump believed it would be a fitting tribute to the senator. So did South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) â who was in charge the appointment.
“Its my honor to ask his sister to finish his work now,” said McMaster.
Darline Graham is a political neophyte. Lindsey Graham adopted his sister after their parents died â and Darline was a teenager.
“Lindsey has always been there for me. And now I will be there for him,” said now Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC).
Lindsey Graham was his sisters caretaker. Now shes the caretaker of his Senate seat until January.
But whos next?
South Carolina has a small Congressional delegation. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) quickly excluded himself from the immediate running, noting the importance of remaining in the House. Plucking one of South Carolinas House GOP members and appointing them to the Senate is a problem for the narrow Republican majority. The Constitution bars appointments to the House. So McMaster would have diminished the GOPs slim majority had he picked a House member to fill in for Lindsey Graham. It would take months to conduct a special election to fill the vacant House seat.
Appointing Darline Graham solves that problem.
Reps. Russell Fry (R-SC), Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) are all interested in running for the full term. South Carolina will hold a snap primary in mid August. The winner will
