Trump has spent heavily to get Darlene Graham through a South Carolina Senate runoff, but Republicans expect her to lose — a bad sign for how far his endorsement still carries.

• Trump put more than $800,000 of his own pack money behind Darlene Graham over Ralph Norman, a populist Republican with a longer conservative record.
• Graham hurt herself by admitting she knows little about national security, fumbling questions on Taiwan and the South China Sea, and clips of it spread fast in Republican circles.
• Lobbyists like her because she is seen as a blank slate whose staff has deep K Street ties; one described her as the best possible outcome for the swamp.
• A clean-energy pack funded mostly by crypto billionaire Chris Larson is spending about $1 million to sink Norman, who once championed solar and then turned against it.
• The pack copies the AIPAC playbook — attack ads that never mention its real issue — after already helping beat Andy Ogles and Chip Roy.

Outlook: Top Republicans expect Graham to lose, which would mark a rare Trump endorsement failure and a setback for the clean-energy money trying to pick off its enemies.