WASHINGTON ― South Carolina Republicans did as they were told by President Donald Trump on Tuesday and voted to make Lindsey Graham’s younger sister their nominee to replace him in the U.S. Senate after his sudden death last month.

Darline Graham, who had never publicly evinced a desire to run for public office prior to being asked by Trump to run for her brother’s seat, defeated congressman Ralph Norman in the runoff election. She will now face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November and, given the state’s recent political history, is likely to win.

“I think Trump making this a referendum on himself meant that MAGA voters in key places turned out and voted for the candidate he endorsed,” said Scott Huffmon, a political scientist and pollster at South Carolina’s Winthrop University. “Given Trump‘s recent losses in primary endorsements, that was not a sure thing when polls opened this morning.”

The race had divided the world of Trump’s followers and supporters, with a considerable number breaking with Trump and backing Norman. The American Conservative Union, for example, which stages the various “Conservative Political Action Conferences” in the United States and abroad, and which in recent years has essentially become a propaganda arm for Trump, backed Norman over Graham.

To counter this, Trump expended considerable time and effort to ensure that steadfast ally Lindsey Graham’s vote was replaced by someone who owed her political career entirely to him.

While most Trump GOP primary “endorsements” ― which in the majority of cases are for incumbents without serious opposition or candidates with clear polling leads ― involve little more than a post or two on Trump’s personal social media platform, he pulled out all the stops to back Graham.

He staged a rally for her on Friday in Myrtle Beach, one of the most conservative regions of the state and where the hometown congressman, Russell Fry, had done the best in the Aug. 11 primary. Trump persuaded Fry, who is now seeking reelection to his House seat, to endorse Graham, and Trump followed up Friday’s trip to the state with a “tele-rally” ― in which he phones in to a gathering of the candidate’s supporters ― on Monday evening.

Those efforts appear to have paid off. Graham won handily in counties within Fry’s congressional district in the northeast part of the state. In Myrtle Beach’s Horry County, where she won 35% compared to Fry’s 42 and Norman’s 8 in the Aug. 11 primary, Graham was leading Norman 73-27 with 75% of the vote counted.

“Horry turned out significantly for Graham,” Huffmon said. “They could have stayed home after their original choice of congressman Fry lost, but they decided to heed Trump‘s call and vote as if he were on the ballot.”

Tuesday’s runoff was necessary because South Carolina is among the southern states that retain a Jim Crow-era requirement that a candidate must secure an outright majority to win, a rule originally created to prevent Black people from winning public office.

Trump’s public backing of Darline Graham failed to clear the field for her, and she wound up with nine opponents on Aug. 11. She won just under a third of the ballots cast, while Norman received 25%.

Lindsey Graham, who was 71, died on July 11 of a tear in his aorta, a consequence of long-term arterial sclerosis. Darline Graham, who is nine years younger, was appointed by Trump ally and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on July 13 following Trump’s urging to fill the remaining five months of the term, and took office the following day.

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