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by WILL FOLKS
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During the recently concluded Republican primary for governor in South Carolina, one of the most effective lines of attack against establishment lieutenant governor Pamela Evette was her prior embrace of discredited diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Evette was branded a “DEI queen,” and the allegation hung like a millstone around her candidacy from the moment it entered the public consciousness.
Not even an endorsement from U.S. president Donald Trump was enough to save her…
As we approach another day of decision for Palmetto State GOP voters, could history be repeating itself?
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Interim U.S. senator Darline Graham Nordone is locked in an incredibly close race against fifth district congressman Ralph Norman for the GOP nomination for the seat previously held by Nordone’s late brother, Lindsey Graham. Nordone and Norman will face voters this Tuesday (August 25, 2026).
Multiple polls shared with FITSNews show an incredibly close race – but a late-breaking video of Nordone touting DEI policies during her tenure at the helm of the S.C. Commission for the Blind (SCCB) is having a devastating impact on her campaign.
The clip features Nordone touting the same DEI programs she is now seeking to distance herself from on the campaign trail.
“We got a diversity and inclusion committee,” Nordone, wearing a mask, stated in the 2021 clip. “I want to be a leader in state agencies when it comes to that.”
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? Newly uncovered video of Darline Graham discussing the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the South Carolina Commission for the Blind—an initiative she led while serving as its director.
— Kelly McCarty (@KellyLMcCarty) August 22, 2026
Darline: We got a diversity and inclusion committee. I want to be a leader in state… pic.twitter.com/LT0Z2Td0LI
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Budget documents (.pdf) published by the commission that same year confirmed Nordone’s agency used “affirmative action data” in planning its recruitment efforts, and that “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were promoted by conducting yearly training for all employees.”
That’s right: Nordone’s agency used tax dollars to foist compulsory woke propaganda on every single agency employee, government-subsidized indoctrination which “would not have been possible without the agency’s DEI committee, (which) is responsible for these initiatives.”
Nordone also made sure DEI policies – and affirmative action hiring – were fully implemented by the agency during her tenure as its leader.
In 2023, SCCB bragged on accountability reports (.pdf) that its workforce was “the most diverse it has been in nearly a decade,” while the following year it boasted in another report (.pdf) that its equal opportunity rating was “the highest it has been in the history of the agency.”
And while the word “diversity” was scrubbed from SCCB’s most recent report (.pdf), the agency nonetheless bragged at having “increased its equal employment opportunity goal attainment rate” to the point it now ranked “eleventh out of seventy-nine state agencies” on this indicator.
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RELATED | RALPH NORMAN FOR U.S. SENATE
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The real problem for Nordone isn’t the fact she embraced these left-of-center ideologies during her tenure as a government bureaucrat – it’s that she now wants GOP voters to take her seriously as a DEI opponent.
Just this past Friday (August 21, 2026) in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Nordone appeared at a rally held on her behalf by Trump. During her remarks to the crowd, she expressly repudiated the “woke agenda” – and DEI policies in particular – drawing cheers from the MAGA faithful.
“I oppose DEI,” Nordone said at the Trump rally. “I oppose the woke agenda.”
Does she, though?
Like Evette before her, Nordone’s real issue isn’t her support for these policies, it’s her hypocrisy… which is now on full display at a make-or-break moment in her nascent political career.
Can Nordone fool enough GOP primary voters to prevail over Norman? We’ll find out soon…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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11 comments
Hey Will, what’s the weather like snuggling up to Ralph Norman’s taint? Hints of eau de gunpowder?
For too many six year terms, South Carolina has been a laughing stock because we kept sending a Democrat masquerading as a Republican back to Washington. “His” name was Lindsey Graham. His “reaching across the aisle” to the Democrats has likely disgusted us all at one point or another.
Why would anyone expect “Little Sister” to be any different? Is it because “former” life-long Democrat (until 2015) Donald Trump told us she is great and we need to vote for her? Thanks, but no thanks! Lindsey’s butt was glued to our Senate seat in DC for far too long. I am no fan of Ralphie, but I think he will be less harmful than another damn Graham in our seat for another six years, especially when Trump tells us we need her as gas prices climb and he tells us he doesn’t care. I bet he doesn’t. He’s rich, and all of his travel at the moment is on our dime.
My sole comfort here in this moment of decision is this – whether ‘Stormin Norman’ wins or Ms.’ Namby-pamby’ Graham does come Tuesday, there are 99 other Senators to weigh in …. Norman smacks of ‘the good ole boy’ network – we don’t need any more of that! … Mrs. Nordone/nee Graham is trading on her maiden name & DJT’s backing… but I think she’s got stars in her eyes…and doesn’t have the guts/stamina/experience for the long haul. It’ll be a last-minute call for me …..
The use of the word “woke”…. pathetic. I truly cannot imagine having people like this represent me. Such sycophants and hypocrites. And what’s “woke” about making a workforce look more like our country? People who lose their vision come from all walks of life and deal with challenges and discrimination frequently. It makes sense that an agency serving them would strive to open its doors to “others”, so that not everyone has the same perspectives and life experiences. Believe it or not, it makes the workplace richer to have diverse looks and viewpoints and resumes. It’s repulsive that she’s cowering rather than intelligently defending against the characterization of DEI initiatives being “woke” in the first place. But she’s sold her soul, just like anyone has who uses that ignorant term to describe opportunities for others.
if Graham wins, she may get tired of the job and quit before the full six years are up. Doesn’t seem very serious.
I hope she DOES get elected and that her focus is NOT war, but helping the vulnerable. With her former career, one can hope.
If you are who I think you are, you would be able to please communicate to her (and no matter what happens tomorrow, she is, God willing, a full-fledged U.S. Senator until January 2027) my ideas for very feasible and immediately-needed legislation which promote decency and public confidence in the U.S. Judiciary and protection for the vulnerable.
My three ideas for immediate legislation are:
(1) Amend the federal recusal statute for federal jurists to align it with modern genetic knowledge and with GINA to make first cousins a third-degree, not fourth degree, relationship which mandates recusal. Right now, the U.S. may be embarrassingly the only country in the world where a judge may legally sit on the case of, and rule for, his/her first cousin; yet, the losing party can do nothing about it because the line is drawn at third-degree and first-cousins are incorrectly classified as fourth degree. Societally, and in some states, first-cousins are viewed as siblings and marriage between first-cousins is as prohibited as between siblings.
(2) Introduce a decency-in-rental law whereby states which receive federal assistance must by law prohibit evictions in extremes of heat, say on days below 25 and/or above 85 degrees Fahrenheit and of families with infants below one year of age and/or elderly above 70 years of age.
(3) Amend RIFRA to make it possible for parturient inmates (and these are not rare) to breastfeed their newborns. The babies committed no crime to be denied mother’s milk even if the mother were a convict.
Thanks for your care and attention and God bless.
In the balance of these two lackluster choices, I’m gonna go with the one who isn’t following in the mantle of the biggest recently living warmonger of 21rst century. No more Clintons, no more Bushes, no more Cheneys, no more McCains, and no more Grahams.
Catfish, that is an excellent idea! please allow me to add, “No more Trumps” to the list!
Yawn. Well, if Norman loses, he can go to work for FITS. His writing of this article proves he knows his way around tabloid journalism.
Maybe Ralph can get tatted up and do a podcast. Sell some male vitality pills, prepper buckets and crappy gold coins. Maybe dip into the crypto-shilling scene?
Reagan got his big tent all right, absolutely chock full of clowns.