By Seanna Adcox | Editor-in-chief
Darline Graham was sworn in yesterday. She is the first woman ever to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
In Statehouse drama, budget negotiators meet again this afternoon. We’ll see if they actually make some progress today. Yesterday’s meeting was short.
“There must be a way colloquially to skin this cat.” - Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, on finding a way out of the chambers’ budget impasse.
U.S. Sen. Darline Graham is pictured Tuesday alongside her husband, Larry Nordone, and Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
By Shauneen Miranda with States Newsroom’s Washington, D.C. bureau
Sen. Darline Graham joined the U.S. Senate Tuesday, temporarily filling the seat of her late brother, Lindsey Graham. Her appointment continues until January. Voters will decide next month who will be the Republican nominee on the ballot in November for the next six-year term.
Sen. Tom Davis and Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler are the two Senate Republicans on the six-member budget negotiating committee. (File photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
By Skylar Laird
Two weeks into the financial year, legislators are still at an impasse on the state budget, with three options for moving forward. One includes not passing a new budget at all. Skylar breaks down the options, including how forgoing a new spending plan potentially affects teachers’ salaries, employees’ cost-of-living increases, Medicaid, and federal grocery benefits.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks during a news conference in Gov. Henry McMaster’s office at the Statehouse in August 2022. (Photo by Travis Bell/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COMMENTARY
By Paul Hyde
In his latest commentary, Paul Hyde reflects on the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's independent streak and willingness to cross the aisle to get things done, which he writes “has become so rare that it now seems almost quaint.” He also writes about the senator's inspiring personal story — from the boy behind the bar in a small town to “one of the most skilled politicians South Carolina has produced.”
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