DARLINE GRAHAM: I'm South Carolina's newest senator. This is who I am and what I believe

To everyone who has reached out over the past few weeks with condolences, stories about my brother Lindsey, and prayers — thank you.You have helped me and my family get through some of the hardest weeks of our lives.I never expected to be running for office.

I have never had any desire to be a politician.I am doing this because I am answering President Trump's call to serve and want to stand up for South Carolina and fight for his agenda.Like Lindsey, I am a hard worker with a servant's heart.

We grew up in the back of a bar and liquor store, in one room.Our parents worked hard every day to make ends meet — there was no time for sickness and few vacations, because if the doors weren't open, no money was coming in.LINDSEY GRAHAM’S SISTER APPOINTED TO SENATE AS GOP RUSHES TO PROTECT FRAGILE MAJORITYMy mother passed away when I was 11, and my father just over a year later.

Lindsey stepped in to raise me.He was always there for me, and I will miss him dearly.For 30 years my passion has been serving South Carolina.

So when President Trump asked me to run for the Senate, I answered the call, and I am proud to have his endorsement.For the past seven years, I led a state agency with 130 employees and a 90-million-dollar budget.We turned it from a struggling organization into a national model helping people find work and live independently.

We made sure all spending was reasonable, allowable, and necessary.I fought against duplication of services knowing it wasted taxpayers' dollars.But beyond the resume, people want to know who I am and what I believe.I'm a mother, a grandmother, and a wife.

I know how to bargain shop and I look for the buy-one-get-one-free sales at the grocery store.I just bought a new pair of shoes to walk around the U.S.

Capitol off the clearance rack at the Shoe Warehouse.I cut my own grass with a push mower, and yes, I know how to use a weedeater.Lindsey was the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and was an expert on the federal budg...