Darlene Graham focuses on occupational disability. Now it can help shape national policy

This story was originally published by The 19th.

Unlike her late brother Lindsey, whose political career spanned 33 years, Darlene Graham had never run for or held elective office — until she was appointed to serve the remainder of the U.S. senator’s term this week. Instead, she worked in publicly funded vocational rehabilitation programs that help people with disabilities overcome barriers to employment.

Given her lack of political experience, it is difficult to know her priorities between now and January 2027, when Lindsey Graham’s term ends. But for former colleagues and disability advocates who worked with her, there is no doubt about Darlene Graham’s abilities. They describe the 62-year-old as a dedicated civil servant, uninterested in the spotlight and with deep knowledge of the issues facing the disability community. They are optimistic she will bring that experience to Capitol Hill.

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“She loved her brother. He raised her,” said Kimberly Tiso, president of Able South Carolina, the state’s Center for Independent Living, or CIL, a federally funded center that provides peer support and services to people with disabilities.

“Family is what defines her, but it’s not her brother. That’s what I used to tell people [in disability advocacy]said Tiso, a cancer survivor and amputee who has known Graham and worked alongside her for more than a decade. “She is a leader, but she is not the type of leader who would ever brag about what she has done.”

Tiso was careful to point out that she doesn’t think Graham is some kind of secret liberal nor a disability rights activist. In fact, Tissot said, Graham didn’t seem particularly political at all; It was her dedication to her family and to the employment of people with disabilities, which has long been a bipartisan issue.

This is certainly the case in South Carolina. In 2022, the state passed a law ending the minimum wage for people with disabilities. The bill received a unanimous vote in the state Senate and a nearly unanimous vote in the state House of Representatives. Both had Republican majorities at the time. According to Tiso, she and Graham were present at the bill signing.

“But if you know Darlene, she’s always in the back,” Tiso said. “For as long as I’ve known her, she’s never wanted that recognition.”

After the law passed, Graham participated in the process of eliminating the state’s remaining minimum wage. She has served on key committees with Tissot, alongside other civil servants and disability advocates.

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One of the bill’s main supporters and original cosponsors was former Republican state Sen. Katrina Shealy, a longtime friend of Darlene Graham and a supporter of disability rights legislation during her time in office. They live near each other, and Graham sometimes comes over and drinks wine with Shelley on her back porch and “talks to the donkeys” the former lawmaker keeps as pets, she said.

Shelley first met Graham through state Republican Party politics, but not because of any strong interest in politics on Graham’s part.

“She’s always been there for Lindsay, but I don’t think she’s really political,” Shelley said.

This is a highly political moment for disability rights advocates. Massive cuts to Medicaid under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Lindsey Graham supported, threaten disability services in many states. The Trump administration has also moved to dismantle the Department of Education and move oversight of special education services to the Department of Health and Human Services, a shift that many experts believe will put students with disabilities at risk. Lindsey Graham has not commented publicly on these actions, but has been an outspoken ally of the president and his administration.

“I promise to work hard over the next few months to support the president and continue my brother’s efforts on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States,” Darlene Graham said Tuesday.

According to the Open Secrets database of political donations, Darlene Graham has made one political donation since 1990, when the nonpartisan nonprofit began tracking: $100 to Shelly’s state Senate re-election campaign during the 2020 election cycle.

When Shelly was first elected in 2012, she was the only woman in the South Carolina Senate. She is known as one of the “Sister Senators,” a group of five South Carolina legislators — three Republicans, one Democrat and one independent — who stood their ground to prevent a near-total ban on abortion in the state. She and the other two Republican “sisters” lost to primary challengers in 2024.

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Shelley is no longer in politics. She is currently the community outreach coordinator for the Brain Health Center at the University of South Carolina, one of 33 centers in the United States dedicated to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. She became involved in Alzheimer’s advocacy after her husband, Jamie, was diagnosed with the condition.

Since 2019, Graham has served as president of the South Carolina Commission on the Blind, which focuses on employment and training for people who are blind or visually impaired.

David Hook, executive director of the Union Center for the Blind, a peer-led organization that trains blind and visually impaired people to use technology, worked closely with the committee. Houck, who is blind, said he has met Graham on various occasions, though he often works with her staff.

He has nothing but praise for Graham’s career, which, in Houck’s view, gives him knowledge and relationships that will serve his community well. He even hopes she will consider running for office once her term as interim legislator ends.

“She brings a great deal of experience from her background and I know Blind People of South Carolina supports her,” Houck said.