Nancy Mace Is Already Talking About Taking Over Lindsey Graham's Seat

Lindsey Graham's body isn't even cold and the South Carolina political class is already running the numbers on his old seat. Nancy Mace, to her credit, has never pretended to be subtle about ambition. But talking succession strategy within hours of a sitting senator's death is the kind of thing that used to at least wait for the funeral to be scheduled. It says something about where our politics has landed that nobody seems embarrassed by the timing anymore.

Graham was a complicated figure for conservatives, plenty of us spent years arguing with him rather than for him, but he spent decades in that seat and South Carolina voters sent him back again and again. That deserves a beat of respect before the jockeying starts. Instead we get the usual scramble: staffers making calls, allies testing the waters, ambitious House members positioning themselves before the governor has even sorted out the appointment process.

Mace has real political talent and a real base, nobody's disputing that. If she wants the seat, she should earn it the old-fashioned way, by making her case to voters and the governor on the merits, not by being first out of the gate while the news is still breaking. South Carolina Republicans have a chance here to fill this seat with someone who actually reflects what the state wants, not just whoever moved fastest.

What bothers us isn't ambition. Ambition is fine, it's how you get people willing to do the job at all. It's the speed, the tastelessness of treating a colleague's death as a starting gun. Grief and opportunism don't have to be enemies, but they shouldn't be running the same news cycle. South Carolina deserves a process that looks like it respects the man before it starts arguing over who replaces him.