Write-In Ralph: South Carolina Republicans challenge Trump’s Senate pick

Charleston, South Carolina – Avery Milton thought he was a die-hard supporter of US President Donald Trump. The 28-year-old South Carolina native had voted for Trump in the past three elections and believed in his promise to put America first. But ahead of the midterm elections, the president has left him feeling betrayed. “He stabbed us in the back during his second term,” Milton told Al Jazeera. He said many people close to him share this frustration, particularly younger conservatives around his age who are starting families and entering the workforce. Now, Milton is helping lead a grassroots effort to write in Republican Congressman Ralph Norman for the US Senate, rather than support the party nominee, Senator Darline Graham , who has Trump’s endorsement. In the 2022 South Carolina Senate race, write-in votes accounted for just 0.1 percent of all votes cast. Despite the president’s endorsement, Graham has struggled to unite conservatives behind her, potentially giving Democratic challenger Annie Andrews an opening in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1998. But she made history as the first sibling appointed to fill a Senate vacancy. Milton said he and other supporters wanted a senator who would think independently, rather than simply fall in line with party leadership. “We don’t necessarily want somebody that’s a rubber stamp for everything,” he said, adding that he wanted someone willing to “think of all the sides of an issue and policy”. Among those voters, Democratic Senate candidate Andrews led Graham by 20 percentage points.