South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott called fellow Sen. Darline Graham “ready for prime time” days before she is set to defend her seat in an Aug. 25 runoff election for the GOP nomination.

“Darline Graham is the real deal,” Scott said on the Aug. 23 episode of NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” He added that Graham is “highly qualified” and “incredibly competent.”

“I can tell you, as the senior senator for the great state of South Carolina, the person I want in the Senate with me, Darline Graham, representing the people of South Carolina,” Scott added.

The comments follow a debate exchange on national security that critics of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s sister called a gaffe. Darline Graham, 62, is a longtime state bureaucrat in South Carolina government who has worked as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind since 2019.

She’s a political novice who has never before run for elected office.

“I’m not that informed on national security, so — but I do support the military,” Darline Graham said during an Aug. 18 candidates’ debate when asked about Taiwan and the South China Sea. “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.”

President Donald Trump defended Darline Graham following the remark, saying that she was “being honest.“

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to fill the remainder of her brother’s term just days after the U.S. lawmaker died on July 11 of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Before his death, Lindsey Graham had already won the Republican nomination in a June primary.

She subsequently announced that she would run for a full term of her own and was backed by Trump.

“I asked her to do this,” Trump said as he pressed the case for Darline Graham at an Aug. 21 rally. “I said, ‘Darline, you gotta do it.'”

She placed first in the crowded field for the Aug. 11 special Republican primary with 33% of the vote. Darline Graham will face Rep. Ralph Norman, a hard-line conservative and member of the House Freedom Caucus, in the runoff, a closely watched test of Trump’s clout in Republican primaries.