Charlie James and caller Becky discuss GOP waiver rules for Darlene Graham.

What this episode covers

Charlie James: All right, well let's find out what's going on. We'll go to Becky in Spartanburg, EC of Spartanburg County. Becky, how are you? Becky: I'm good, how are you, Charlie? Charlie James: I'm really good. Have—has the EC met about Darlene Graham yet? And how does the process work? Becky: Well, I will tell you that we would be called together either in a physical meeting in Columbia or probably on a Zoom since this is kind of a hurry-up thing. And so when I saw, um, the rumors about her not having voted, then I thought, "Oh gosh, already there's a challenge to the rule." And so I thought, well, the waiver's got to come from the State EC. The way—the way the rule reads, there could be a waiver locally, the GOP locally, if it were a sheriff or a county councilman or something like that. But if it's a statewide race, the, um, the waiver has to come from the State Executive Board. And so I—I waited to see, and I, of course, I was listening to you say that she had voted in a runoff, and then we were waiting to see if she had voted in this past election. That's the only thing. If she voted in '26 and she voted in '24, then she's going to be—she's not going to need a waiver. So I don't know if the '26... Charlie James: But '20—but—but I—the rules say you have to vote in two out of the three of the last statewide primaries. Becky: Right. So that would be—that would be two if she voted in '24 and she voted in... Charlie James: If she voted in that—in that—in that primary, right. So... Becky: Right. So I don't know... Charlie James: ...so that might be taken care of, yeah. Becky: Yeah, I don't know that that's been reported. It's certainly been certified, but I haven't heard whether it's been reported, and no, we have not been called to a Zoom or to a physical meeting. Charlie James: So when somebody like this, um, files, that doesn't automatically mean they're on the ballot, does it? Becky: Unless they're rejected for some reason, I would expect them to be on the ballot. Charlie James: Yeah, yeah. Well, especially with these rules, though, because now we got—we got a whole new, you know, all these parameters on who can be a candidate. Becky: Right, right. Charlie James: So, yeah, used to be if you just—if you just wanted to vote, you showed up, you know, you—you paid your $10,400 and you, um, yeah, [laughs] and—and you ran in the election. But now, now we got a lot of about a lot of other things to take into consideration. Well, Becky, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for the information. Becky: You're welcome. Charlie James: Take care, talk soon. We'll see what happens. I mean, we don't know. But listen, she's going to be on the ballot. Just put that over in the corner. I mean, are you going to want to be—now, I want you to think about this. Think about Lindsey Graham. Think about the power he's got, had. Think about the money involved with his campaign. Think about all of the high-profile—maybe people you've never heard of, but in the world of politics, a lot of high-profile people there in—in the Lindsey Graham campaign. You got all of these people. Got all of these PACs—what, you had that, uh, that one PAC promising nine, almost a million dollars for what, a three-week campaign? That's a lot of money. Lot of money. Are you going to be a state EC executive committeeman that votes not to let Darlene Graham on the ballot? Well, you're done. You are done in the Republican Party. You know, you would—you would0 literally be signing your own death warrant as far as politics are concerned in South Carolina. The machine runs everything. A lot of people think the candidate runs everything. That is not the case. The machine runs everything in politics: the PACs, the money, the donors, the lobbyists, the special interests—they run it all. And that's, you know, not supposed to work that way. So I'm wondering, I'm wondering who is pulling John Thune's strings? Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing ye ...

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