Sen. Lindsey Graham gets a 2026 challenge from Democrat Annie Andrews, who ran against Nancy Mace
'He's changed his position on nearly every issue over that time and that's because, in my view, he doesn't stand for anything or believe in anything other than what it takes to get reelected,' Andrews, a pediatrician in Charleston, told The Associated Press before a campaign rollout Thursday.
In her launch video, Andrews says it's 'embarrassing' to see how politicians like Graham — at the moment one of President Donald Trump's top Senate allies — have swung from criticizing Trump to working to gain his favor. The video features archival video of Graham bemoaning critics who called Trump a 'kook' and then, a year earlier, using the same term to describe his former GOP primary foe in the 2016 presidential contest.
Andrews also levies criticism at Graham for voting to confirm Trump's Cabinet picks and for his relationship with Elon Musk, describing 'an unelected billionaire ... taking a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare and veterans' healthcare.' She calls Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 'a guy who can't even organize a text thread,' a reference to the recent Signal chat scandal in which war plans were discussed.
No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina in decades, and Republicans in recent history typically take statewide seats by double-digit margins. When he last ran in 2020, Graham defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.
That contest turned into South Carolina's most expensive ever, with both candidates posting record fundraising that surpassed $200 million total and continued to grow in the race's closing days. Harrison, who went on to chair the Democratic National Committee, became the first U.S. Senate candidate to amass a war chest of more than $100 million over the course of the race.
Andrews was the Democratic nominee who unsuccessfully sought to unseat Mace in 2022, losing to the Republican by 14 percentage points. South Carolina's 1st District, which spans the state's southern coast, is the only one to have flipped from red to blue in decades, when Joe Cunningham won it for Democrats for a single term in the 2018 election. Mace won it in 2020 and has been reelected twice, although in 2026 she is eyeing a race for governor.
In the years since her House run, Andrews stepped away from her practice at the Medical University of South Carolina and founded a political organization focused on issues related to children, including climate change, gun violence and childhood poverty. According to federal filings, an affiliated political action committee, Their Future PAC, gave $7,000 to a handful of candidates in the 2024 cycle and had about $5,000 on hand at the end of 2024.
Asked about Democrats' lackluster statewide record in the state, Andrews said she felt Harrison's effort was 'hamstrung' by necessary precautions in place during the pandemic. Now, she said, voters feel strained under the effects of the Trump administration's 'chaotic' policies.
"Lindsey Graham has had 22 years to make things better for folks here in South Carolina, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many voters who could articulate in what way Lindsey has made their life better," Andrews said.
Graham, seeking his fifth Senate term, kicked off his reelection campaign in February, announcing that Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen. Tim Scott would chair his effort. Scott, the state's junior senator, is serving as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the chamber's campaign arm.
At least one Republican has announced a primary challenge to Graham.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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