In less than a week, South Carolina Republicans will choose a new U.S. Senate candidate for this year’s ballot, replacing Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last month. For the GOP establishment, the choice is clear: Donald Trump is enthusiastically backing the late senator’s sister, appointed Sen. Darline Graham, as are Republican Sen. Tim Scott and several other prominent officials in the Palmetto State.

There are a variety of reasons for this. Some South Carolina Republicans are strongly opposed to Graham’s intraparty rival, Rep. Ralph Norman. Others are backing Graham out of loyalty to her brother. Others are backing the appointed incumbent because the president has told them to.

But hanging overhead are questions that Trump and his allies haven’t bothered to ask: Is Darline Graham up to the job? Other than being Lindsey Graham’s sibling, is she in any way qualified to be a senator?

Those questions are about to get a lot louder.

With seven days remaining before the special primary runoff election, Graham and Norman participated in a debate, which included a straightforward question from Greta Van Susteren. “Senator, are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? If so, why?” the longtime journalist asked.

Graham asked Van Susteren to repeat the question, and she did, word for word.

“I’m just going to be honest here,” the appointed senator replied. “I’m not on national security, I’m not that informed on national security, so. But I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I’m not a polished politician up here, national security is not my thing, not my area of expertise. But I do support the military.”

There were audible gasps in the audience, and for good reason: I’m not aware of any senator ever saying in a televised debate, “National security is not my thing.” The fact that she did this during a war made matters quite a bit worse.

For that matter, the admission that she’s not “a polished politician” didn’t help, either: A candidate need not be polished to be informed.

Later, as part of the same debate, Graham also said, in reference to her own home state, that South Carolina has a population of “50 million people.” She was off by about 45 million.

Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of debates like these, and as political forums go, they often help those who struggle with substantive details because, due to time constraints, candidates are required to give short answers. Many wildly unprepared contenders have survived debates by simply memorizing a few sound bites and learning how to pretend to answer questions with filler and platitudes.

That said, these same candidates also tend to know that “I’m not that informed on national security” and “national security is not my thing” won’t help their candidacies.

South Carolina’s runoff primary is Aug. 25. The winner will face Dr. Annie Andrews, a South Carolina pediatrician, who won the Democratic nomination. Watch this space.

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