Republicans are bolstering US Senator Darline Graham’s campaign for a full term amid increasing concern that the race in South Carolina, traditionally a conservative stronghold, is tightening ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Some in the party are worried that the state of the contest, for a seat that her late brother Lindsey Graham held for more than two decades, is in jeopardy, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, is shifting $5 million to the race to support Graham, according to another person familiar with the matter. Two people who asked not to be identified downplayed the move — reported earlier by Axios — as more of a precautionary measure, meant to ensure Republicans are not taking South Carolina for granted.
An average of polls by RealClearPolitics shows Graham with a 2.4 percentage point lead over Democrat Annie Andrews. President Donald Trump won the state by about 18 percentage points in 2024.
The developments underscore the shifting battleground for the Senate, where Democrats need to flip four seats to take majority control. Once seen as unlikely, the possibility of a Democratic takeover has grown as voter frustration over the cost of living and Trump’s stewardship of the economy has risen, imperiling Republicans in long-safe seats.
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Trump will travel to South Carolina before the election in support of Graham’s bid, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified.
The president is increasingly traveling to Republican-leaning states, including Nebraska on Monday, to rally voters around candidates facing tight races. Trump signaled his concern about South Carolina on Monday, when he called Graham a “High Quality person, maybe the Highest” and invoked a transphobic slur against her opponent Andrews, a pediatrician.
With four weeks until Election Day, both parties are making decisions about where to focus their spending. The Senate Leadership Fund recently said it had no plans to pour more money into North Carolina, where polls have consistently shown GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley trailing Democrat Roy Cooper. Instead it began sending more money to races in states such as Kansas, where Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in 94 years .
Republican Governor Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to succeed her brother following his unexpected death in July. With Trump’s backing, she narrowly prevailed in a primary race against Representative Ralph Norman for the GOP nomination to run for a new six-year term. But her political inexperience showed on the debate stage when she conceded she was “not that informed on national security.”
Mick Mulvaney, a former US representative from South Carolina who was also acting chief of staff during Trump’s first term, characterized Graham as a “weak candidate” saying that it was “understandable” given she’s never run for political office.
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“But Trump wanted her, and that was enough for SC primary voters. I don’t think she will actually lose in South Carolina — the State is just too Republican — but it wouldn’t hurt if Trump would show up at least one more time. At the very least, that might squash the write-in protest votes that people are talking about down here,” Mulvaney said.
Andrews, meanwhile, dismissed Trump’s attacks and said she was focused on bringing down costs for families — a key promise Democrats have made to voters who are upset at inflation and the high cost of fuel, sparked in part by Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran.
“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina. And I’m going to work with anyone to put South Carolina first,” Andrews said in a statement.
The Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee defended Andrews in a statement, saying that she’s running a “strong campaign” and pointed to Republicans’ plan to spend money in South Carolina as evidence of an expanded electoral map.
The DSCC’s GOP counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, countered by saying Andrews “fights for the radical left’s agenda,” adding that Graham “is laser-focused on delivering big wins and putting South Carolina families first.”