Polls in South Carolina are open until 7 p.m. today. Ten Republicans are on the ballot in the special primary to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and nobody is expected to clear 50%, so the top two go to a runoff on August 25.

One of the men who could be in that runoff is Ralph Norman, who has represented South Carolina's 5th District since 2017.

Five years ago, Norman asked the White House to have the President use the United States military to stop the transfer of power to the winner of a presidential election. He put it in writing. When a reporter asked him three years later whether he regretted it, he said the only thing he regrets is that he spelled a word wrong.

That is not an exaggeration. Here is the record.

What he wrote in private

On January 17, 2021 — eleven days after the Capitol was attacked, three days before Joe Biden was sworn in — Norman texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows:

"Mark, in seeing what's happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of – no return – in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!"

He meant martial law. Martial law means the military takes over from civilian government. A sitting member of Congress was telling the President's chief of staff that ordering troops into American streets to stop an inauguration was the country's last hope.

The message only became public on December 12, 2022, when Talking Points Memo reported it out of the trove of texts Meadows turned over to the House January 6 committee. That was more than a month after Norman had been comfortably re-elected. Nobody in South Carolina got to weigh it before voting.

What he said in public, five days earlier

This is the part that should decide how you read the text.

On January 12, 2021 — five days before he sent it — Norman put out an official statement on his congressional website explaining why he opposed impeaching Donald Trump. Here is what he told his constituents, in his own words, on his own letterhead:

"With the inauguration of Joe Biden just a few short days away, we should place our focus on ensuring a peaceful transition. These Articles will not do that."

Peaceful transition. That is what he said in public on January 12. On January 17 he privately asked for the military.

And it wasn't the first time the public version and the private version didn't match. On November 7, 2020, the day the networks called the race, Norman texted Meadows:

"Bottom line, it's time we FIGHT FOR THE ONE PERSON WHO HAS CHANGED THIS COUNTRY!! WAY TOO SOON TO GIVE IN NOW!!"

He asked for a conference call and "concrete plans of action." Three days later, on November 10, 2020, at a news conference in the South Carolina Statehouse lobby, a reporter asked Norman whether he accepted the results of the 2020 election.

"Oh absolutely," he said. "I do not hate Joe Biden. I do not like his policies. But that being said, yes we will accept."

He said "yes we will accept" in front of cameras three days after writing "WAY TOO SOON TO GIVE IN NOW" in a text nobody was supposed to see.

He had a chance to walk it back. Twice.

December 2022. When the texts came out, Norman's office put out a statement saying: "Obviously, Martial Law was never warranted. That text message came from a source of frustration." The York County Democratic Party called on him to resign. Its chairman said Norman was "a traitor to our highest ideals." Norman's office declined to comment on the resignation calls, and did not answer the Post and Courier's follow-up question about whether his concerns over the 2020 results had been resolved.

January 2024. CNN's Kaitlan Collins put it to him directly on The Source. She noted that the text went out three days before the inauguration and that "you were urging the White House to use the U.S. military to prevent the peaceful transfer of power," then asked whether he regretted it.

Norman's answer:

"The only thing I regret, I misspelled martial law. I misspelled that. No, I didn't– I didn't– Look, everything happened so quick in that election."

Collins pressed him on what questions still lingered, noting that in CNN's exit polls half of Republican voters didn't believe Joe Biden legitimately won — which he did. Norman went further:

"The bottom line is we've got to have secure elections and whatever that takes. There are a lot of questions that still exist. You know, you've seen the lawsuits that were there. But no, I wouldn't take it back. I misspelled it, I should have taken the time– I was in a hurry, but no, I would not– I don't regret that."

Collins told him plainly that the lawsuits were thrown out and none of them amounted to anything, and that the one recount that found a miscount found more votes for Biden. Then she closed the segment: "Congressman, it is striking to hear you say that you stand by asking for martial law to be declared."

That was 2024. He has not said anything different since.

"Questions that still exist" — after five years and nothing

Norman's whole defense, then and now, is that there were questions. So look at what happened when other Republicans who voted the same way were asked to name the evidence.

In Mississippi, Michael Guest — an eleven-year district attorney — voted to throw out Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes, and then told a Jackson TV station a month later that no one ever showed him evidence substantial enough to overturn anything. That's the honest version of Norman's position, said out loud by someone who had the same information.

Norman had the same information too. He signed the November 6, 2020 letter from 39 Republicans to Attorney General Bill Barr claiming "widespread reports of irregularities." He signed a second letter to Barr on December 1 demanding subpoenas and the impounding of voting machines. He put his name to the Supreme Court brief signed by 126 House Republicans asking the Court to throw out the results in four states he doesn't represent. Every one of those channels came up empty — as Collins put it to him on air, the lawsuits "were all thrown out; none of them amounted to anything."

Five years on, the questions are still "lingering" because nothing was ever found. That's not an open question. That's a closed one he won't accept the answer to.

Then he voted against every attempt to find out what happened

If Norman genuinely wanted answers, there were votes for that. He took the other side of all of them.

• Voted against impeaching Trump for inciting the insurrection.
• Voted against the independent, bipartisan commission to investigate January 6.
• Voted against creating the House Select Committee on January 6 after the commission was blocked.
• Voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the police officers who defended the Capitol — one of only 21 members of the entire House to do so.

That last one is worth sitting with. The Capitol Police held the building on January 6. Norman was inside it. He voted against giving them a medal.

This is the pattern we documented on his impeachment record: in 2021 he put his name on five separate resolutions to impeach four Biden officials in 45 days, including one against Kamala Harris that drew only two cosponsors in the whole House. Aimed at the other party, his appetite for accountability was bottomless. Aimed at his own, it disappeared.

What the job actually is

Norman is asking for a six-year term in the United States Senate. The Senate is the chamber that certifies presidential electoral votes alongside the House. It is the chamber that would vote on the confirmation of a Defense Secretary. It is the chamber that holds impeachment trials.

He is not hiding what he thinks. He said it on national television, unprompted, with a chance to take it back: no, I wouldn't take it back.

He has real support in this race. His endorsers include Rep. Nancy Mace, state Freedom Caucus legislators, and former Senator Jim DeMint. He's running against an appointed senator with Trump's endorsement, against Russell Fry, who filed for the Senate seat and his House seat at the same time, and against former Governor Mark Sanford.

Whatever you think of the rest of that field, this much is documented, in his own words, on his own website and in his own text messages: Ralph Norman told the public he wanted a peaceful transition, and five days later privately asked the White House to send in the military instead. He says he'd do it again.

A man who asked for a military takeover when his side lost an election should not be handed six years in the United States Senate. We deserve better.

Sources

• 1 month after Lindsey Graham's death, voters go to the polls to choose his replacement — Seanna Adcox, SC Daily Gazette, August 11, 2026. Photo of Rep. Ralph Norman at the U.S. Senate Stump Stop in Lexington, S.C., August 1, 2026, by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette.
• SC's Ralph Norman faces calls to resign over martial law text message to Mark Meadows — Caitlin Byrd, The Post and Courier, December 13, 2022.
• Leaked 2021 text from SC Rep. Ralph Norman calls for martial law — South Carolina Public Radio, December 13, 2022.
• Statement on Articles of Impeachment — norman.house.gov, January 12, 2021.