Lindsey Graham’s death transforms the race for his Democratic challenger

Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee for Senate in South Carolina, spent more than a year running to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham, a well-known, four-term Republican incumbent. It was a difficult task for any Democrat in the deeply conservative state.

Now, less than four months before the midterm elections, she does not know who her opponent will be.

Graham’s death Saturday rocked South Carolina politics, leaving voters and politicians shocked and grieving a man who served in office for more than three decades. Andrews, a pediatrician, described the past two days as “overwhelming” after a “tragic turn of events.”

She has had to navigate a complicated line between offering condolences to those who loved Graham while considering the political fallout from his death. On Monday, Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina named Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to fill out his term while Republicans scrambled to organize a special primary to replace him on the November ballot. Andrews may not know for certain who wins that primary until late August, if a runoff election is needed.

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

Related

• Lindsey Graham’s journey from a pool hall to the heights of political power
• Senate returns to Washington after Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death with an uncertain agenda
• Darline Graham Nordone, sister of Lindsey Graham, chosen to fulfill remainder of his term

• Who is Darline Graham Nordone, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister?

More

But she said little would change for her campaign, which she has focused on fixing the healthcare 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.”

Andrews lost a race for Congress in 2022. She decided to run for Senate this election cycle, she has said, after President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Kennedy’s vocal vaccine skepticism has not only fueled measles outbreaks, including one earlier this year in South Carolina, she has argued, but also eroded trust for doctors and public 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 raised more money than Graham’s in every quarter that both candidates were in the race, according to a New York Times analysis of Federal Election Commission records. But Graham had more cash on hand, which allowed him to spend $13.4 million on television and multimedia ads this election cycle, according to data from AdImpact, as he fended off a primary challenge. Andrews’ campaign has spent about $2.3 million on ads. (Graham also had multiple super political action committees boosting him.)

Last month, Andrews won the Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina with more than 61% of the vote. After her victory, Andrews, 45, a mother of three, noted that Graham, who was 71 when he died, had been in the Senate since she was in high school. She cast him as more keen to do Trump’s bidding in Washington than to solve regular families’ problems. “We deserve better,” she said at the time.

In a video Monday, 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.”