H1, Segment 1 - SC Senate primary voting starts soon; poll shows Ralph Norman leading. episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 30, 2026 · 9 MIN

H1, Segment 1 - SC Senate primary voting starts soon; poll shows Ralph Norman leading.

from The Charlie James Show Podcast

In this opening segment of The Charlie James Show, host Charlie James provides essential details regarding the upcoming South Carolina Senate primary. He outlines key dates, reminding listeners that early voting runs August 5–7 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, with election day following on August 11 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. He emphasizes that the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is tomorrow and highlights the primary rules—clarifying that anyone who voted in the June Republican primary, or who didn't vote in June at all, is eligible to cast a ballot. Charlie also analyzes a new Emerson poll following the filing deadline, which shows Ralph Norman leading at 22%, followed by Darlene Graham (19%), Russell Fry (12%), Mark Sanford (11%), and Mark Lynch (7%), with 25% of voters still undecided. He questions Russell Fry’s decision to run simultaneously for his U.S. House seat and the Senate, wondering if splitting campaign resources makes practical sense. Throughout the segment, Charlie takes calls from listeners discussing candidate diversity, voter motivations, and primary dynamics before teasing an upcoming discussion contrasting Dr. Anthony Fauci's statements from 2022 with his recent remarks.

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Transcript Charlie James: And welcome to the program on your Thursday afternoon. As always, an absolute pleasure to have you folks along with us. We got bookus of information for you. Want to start off by saying we got six days until early voting starts in the South Carolina Senate primary. Six days for that is going to be coming up on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of August. Can you believe August is almost here? That's unbelievable. Yeah, the 5th, 6th, and 7th, that is coming up next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. That will be the early voting, but there's more that you need to know about this, okay? Like I said, early voting: 5th, 6th, and 7th. Those hours are from 8:30 to 5:00. Early voting hours are 8:30 to 5:00. Tomorrow is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. I want to repeat that: tomorrow, last day to apply for an absentee ballot. So, we got the early voting, then we got the primary proper coming up on August the 11th. Those hours are going to be from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 at night. Okay? Early voting hours: 8:30 to 5:00. The day of election is 7:00 to 7:00. Then state certification is going to happen on August 14th. If a runoff is needed—and folks, let me tell you, a runoff is going to be needed—that's going to be August 19th, 20th, and 21st. Those... that's going to be early voting for the runoff. Those hours again: 8:30 to 5:00. Then we will have the runoff proper on Tuesday, August the 25th. Those hours will be from 7:00 until 7:00. So, now, who can vote in this primary? If you voted in June in the Republican primary, you can vote in this primary. You can still vote in this primary. I've had a lot of people confused about that over the past couple days. If you voted in the last primary, you can vote in this one. If you did not vote in the last primary—Republican primary—you can still vote in this primary. And, unfortunately, because we have open primaries here in South Carolina, if you are a Democrat and did not vote in the Democrat primary in June, you can also vote in this primary. So, hey, I just want to make sure that you guys know all of this information. The only people that cannot vote in this primary or early vote or anything like that are the people that voted in the Democrat primary. And I'm pretty sure that's almost 0% of this audience. So, just to let you know there. So, if you're listening, chances are you get to vote in this primary. So, if you have any other—any other questions, go to scvotes.gov. That's scvotes.gov. They'll have all the information there for you. Well, there's a new poll out. Emerson did a new poll. It's the first one after the filing deadline for the U.S. Senate primary. Leading the poll right now is Ralph Norman with 22% of the vote, Darlene Graham has 19% of the vote, Russell Fry comes in at 12%, Mark Sanford is at 11%, Mark Lynch is at 7%, and then everybody else below that. But the undecideds are right now at 25%. So, we are nowhere near anybody winning this thing on—on the first go-round. We're just not. So, it's going to go to a runoff, that's for—for certain. And a lot of people are out there going, "You know what? The 25th, that's the real election. That's going to be the one where everybody's going to need to show up." Because, I mean, this is our next senator. This is our next senator—United States Senator—is one of the most important positions not only in South Carolina, I mean, really, on the whole planet. It carries a heck of a lot of weight and a lot of responsibility. So, you guys make sure you get out there and vote. And if you need any of that information, you can always text me over at the Common Sense Retirement Planning text line. That is 800-905-0989. That's also the WORD talk line. So, just let me know if you got any questions about all of this. But here we are—I mean, it's—it's what? It's coming up next week! Like we said, early voting: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's going to be important. Lots of ads out there right now. Darlene G ...

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H1, Segment 1 - SC Senate primary voting starts soon; poll shows Ralph Norman leading.

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