A US Senate race in one of the most reliably Republican states in the country has turned into a dead heat four days before the midterms, according to a new poll showing Republican incumbent Darline Graham tied with Democratic challenger Annie Andrews at 48% each. South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and Donald Trump carried the state by nearly 18 points in 2024.
Graham was appointed to the seat after her brother, longtime senator Lindsey Graham, died in July, and entered the race at Trump's urging without ever having held elected office. Her inexperience has become a defining feature of the campaign, culminating in an August debate in which she admitted she was "not that informed on national security" when asked about US policy toward Taiwan. In the new survey, 51% of voters said she lacked the right experience to be an effective senator.
A Pediatrician's Pitch to the Middle
Andrews, a pediatrician from Charleston, has built her campaign around her medical career, pushing for a public health-insurance option and cheaper prescription drugs while keeping her distance from her party's left flank — she has said she does not support a Medicare for All model, and has conceded that Democrats "failed on the border." That positioning appears to be working with independents, who favor her over Graham by 57% to 37%.
Graham, for her part, has leaned heavily on Trump's backing, opposing abortion rights and saying she "completely trusts" the president on tariffs and the war with Iran. Trump returned to the state Thursday to rally for her, using a 90-minute speech to attack Andrews and drawing repeated interruptions from protesters. Republicans are spending heavily to defend a seat they had not expected to need to defend, and the party's establishment is not entirely unified: Ralph Norman, the congressman Graham beat in the special-election runoff, has said he will not campaign for her.
Other recent surveys paint an equally tight race, though most show Graham with a narrow edge; a South Carolina Policy Council poll conducted this month had her one point ahead, within the margin of error. That same poll underscored how far Andrews has outrun the rest of her party's ticket: the Democratic candidate for governor trailed his Republican opponent by 10 points. With South Carolina never meant to be competitive this cycle, a win for Andrews on Tuesday would rank among the biggest upsets of a midterm election already reshaping expectations about where the fight for the Senate will actually be decided.
