Graham’s Passing Reshapes South Carolina Senate Contest as Democratic Challenger Navigates Uncertainty

Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, spent over a year campaigning to unseat four-term Republican incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham—a formidable challenge in a deeply conservative state. Now, less than four months before the midterm elections, she faces an entirely unknown opponent.

Graham’s death on Saturday sent shockwaves through South Carolina politics, leaving voters and officials mourning a figure who held office for more than three decades. Dr. Andrews, a pediatrician, described the past two days as “overwhelming” following what she called a “tragic turn of events.”

She has walked a delicate line between offering condolences to those who admired Graham and assessing the political ramifications of his passing. On Monday, Governor Henry McMaster appointed Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to complete his term while Republicans scrambled to organize a special primary to determine a replacement on the November ballot. Dr. Andrews may not know her general-election opponent until late August, should a runoff be required.

“To have an open Senate seat in South Carolina is quite unusual,” she said in an interview Monday.

Yet she insisted her campaign’s focus would remain unchanged, centered on reforming the health care system and fully funding Medicaid.

“Our core messaging won’t change, because it doesn’t need to change,” she said. “The problems South Carolinians are facing have not changed over the weekend.”

Dr. Andrews lost a congressional bid in 2022. She entered this Senate race, she has said, after President Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. She has argued that Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism has fueled measles outbreaks—including one earlier this year in South Carolina—and undermined public trust in doctors and health officials.

“I got in this race because I know so many people who feel overlooked by Washington, D.C.,” she said Monday. “It’s an uphill battle as a Democrat in a state like South Carolina, but that doesn’t make the fight any less important.”

Her campaign outpaced Graham’s in fundraising during every quarter both were active, according to a New York Times analysis of Federal Election Commission records. However, Graham maintained a larger cash reserve, enabling him to spend $13.4 million on television and multimedia advertising this cycle, per AdImpact data, as he defended against a primary challenge. Dr. Andrews’s campaign has spent roughly $2.3 million on ads; Graham also benefited from multiple super PACs.

Last month, Dr. Andrews won the Democratic Senate primary with more than 61 percent of the vote. Following her victory, the 45-year-old mother of three noted that Graham—who was 71 at the time of his death—had served in the Senate since she was in high school. She portrayed him as more devoted to advancing Trump’s agenda in Washington than to addressing ordinary families’ concerns. “We deserve better,” she said at the time.

In a video released Monday, Dr. Andrews praised Graham’s decades of service. “Moments like this remind us that life is fleeting, fragile and so much bigger than politics,” she said.

“Senator Graham was a fighter—no one can dispute that,” she added. “But here’s what I want you to know about me: I’m a fighter, too.”

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