Pediatrician Annie Andrews defeated Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina on Tuesday, the Associated Press projected, flipping a Senate seat in a state President Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024. Andrews had about 51% of the vote with 97% of ballots counted.
Andrews, 45, becomes the first woman elected to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate and the first Democrat to win a statewide Senate or governor's race there since 1998, when Fritz Hollings won his final term.
"The Senate seat does not belong to one family, to one party, or to Washington, D.C. It belongs to you and it always will," Andrews told supporters. "I will be a brick wall between Washington, D.C. and South Carolina, even when it means standing up to my own party."
Andrews, who lost a 2022 House race to Rep. Nancy Mace, had never run statewide. "Nobody in Washington recruited me to run," she said.
A seat inherited, then lost
Darline Graham, 62, is the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly in July. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her to finish her brother's term, and she was sworn in on July 14. A former commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind who had never held elected office, she then beat Rep. Ralph Norman in an August runoff for the Republican nomination.
Trump encouraged her to run and visited the state twice in the campaign's final weeks, and a super PAC he controls gave her $827,000. Graham was criticized for her inexperience, including a debate answer in which she said she was "not that informed on national security."
"This is a tough cycle, and all of us need to be involved as we chart a path forward," Graham said in her concession speech.
Trump reacted to her defeat in an interview with The New York Times. "I see that Darline lost. Wow, that's amazing," he said. "How do you think Lindsey would have done if he ran?"
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (file), Annie Andrews campaign, Office of Sen. Chuck Grassley
