Republican Sen.Darline Graham of South Carolina and Democratic challenger Annie Andrews clashed Sunday night in their first and perhaps only debate of the general election, tangling over President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” the high costs of gas and goods, the Iran war and AI data centers.
South Carolina is a ruby-red state where Trump remains popular among Republican voters.But the race has tightened in the closing stretch of the campaign, and Democrats believe they have a shot at knocking off Graham, who was appointed to fill her brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat after his sudden death in July.
The top Senate Republican super PAC has pledged to spend $5 million to shore up Graham’s campaign.At the start of the debate, hosted in Columbia by South Carolina ETV, Darline Graham noted that Sunday night marked exactly three months since her brother unexpectedly died at age 71.Andrews, a pediatrician, sought to portray Graham, who previously led a state agency, as an inexperienced empty suit who refuses to stand up to Trump or his unpopular policies.She mocked Graham as “the White House’s ambassador to South Carolina.”Graham attacked Andrews as the “most radical liberal” to run in South Carolina and as sympathetic to the Democratic Socialist Party.
“Annie Andrews will not stand up to the Socialist Democratic Party; she’s only going to join them,” Graham said — a characterization Andrews rejected.Graham has “been told to come out here and call me Bernie, Ocasio, Mamdani — that’s what’s in her script.But the truth is my name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn’t be any confusion about that,” Andrews said.
“The truth is I support the Second Amendment, I believe we need a secure border, and we need to deport illegal immigrants who break the law....
The real difference between me and Sen.Graham is that I will stand up to my own party, and I will always put South Carolina first.”Graham and Andrews are running ...