President Donald Trump’s endorsement is important, but not infallible. He has had a few blemishes on his mostly stellar track record of primary endorsements lately. His original pick for South Carolina governor finished first in the initial round of voting but lost badly in the runoff, though he had modified his endorsement to include both GOP candidates by then.

Nostalgia for Graham, who served South Carolina in the Senate since 2003 and before that had been in the House since 1995, likely played a role in his sister’s win.

But Graham never faced a primary opponent as strong as Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) or any sitting members of Congress when groups like the Club for Growth were casting about for alternatives.

Finally, it looked as though Graham Nordone, who was appointed by the governor to fill the remainder of her brother’s Senate term and has switched back to her maiden name for the campaign, might have pressed her disinterest in foreign policy a bit too far.

Her inability to answer a question about Taiwan in a debate less than a week before the primary election was widely seen as a gaffe that might help Norman pull off the upset.

“You know what I’ve done in the last week?” Graham Nordone said in response to a reporter’s question on what she had done to bone up on national security since her debate misstep. “I’ve gone around this entire state talking to as many people as I possibly can, and you know how many of them brought up Taiwan or national security? Not one. They’re talking about the rising cost of healthcare and affordability. So that’s what’s important to me.”

Since filling her brother’s Senate seat and launching her campaign for a full six-year term, South Carolina’s newest senator has talked very little about her brother’s signature issue.

In fact, Graham Nordone told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that her brother talked too much about national security and not enough about domestic affairs.

“I used to see him on the talk shows. I would watch him, and I’d be like, ‘Lindsey, you’re just talking about national security all the time.’ And I understand that’s important, protecting our wars, national security, absolutely,” she said. “But also talk about what matters to the average person, the price of groceries, the price of gas, healthcare, insurance. Those are the kinds of things that I’m worried about. So I think that’s important too.”

Maybe she’s on to something. An Emerson poll taken at an earlier stage of the race found 60% of likely Republican primary voters in the state named the economy as the top issue the next senator should address while only 4% picked foreign policy.

Even before the Iran war, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll earlier this year found that 56% of U.S. adults thought Trump’s military interventions had “gone too far.” By June, an Economist-YouGov poll found that 68% wanted to wrap up the Iran conflict as quickly as possible while 63% disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy, once his top issue.

Trump acknowledged the difference between the Grahams in a telerally before the runoff. “She’s tough, she’s strong, and she’s the perfect person to carry on the legacy of her brother,” he said said. “Very different people. She’s very much about that affordability. He was very much about foreign affairs, but he was good at everything, and she’s good at everything. And with time, she will be one of our greats.”

Or as Trump put it in his Graham eulogy, “I will tell you, he never saw a war that he didn’t like.”

Graham Nordone’s priorities may align more with the voters as Republicans try to defend their slim congressional majorities.

That’s not to say that she will vote like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). She is relying on her brother’s staff and her political fortunes are closely tied to Trump.

DARLINE GRAHAM NORDONE DEFEATS RALPH NORMAN IN SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE GOP RUNOFF 

“The Founding Fathers believed people should not elect U.S. Senators,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a strong critic of Trump’s foreign policy, wrote on X in an apparent reference to Graham Nordone’s primary triumph. “They were right.” He was less ambiguous when he reposted a call that she had won the race with a sarcastic, “Another MAGA victory!” 

Nevertheless, the senator’s win could be the latest sign voters want their elected officials to concentrate on matters closer to home.