Sen. Darline Graham won South Carolina’s Republican Senate primary runoff last week, defeating Rep. Ralph Norman. She’s now all set to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham for a full term. However, many Democrats believe their nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews, has a chance at an upset, on account of how Darline Graham is an admitted dullard.
The consistently silly “Democratic Wins Media” social media account posted after the primary, “BREAKING: Stunning new polling shows Democrat Annie Andrews TIED in South Carolina's Senate race against Darlene Graham. This is huge.” This is not in fact “BREAKING” news, as the poll had already been released.
The Impact Research poll shows Andrews and Graham tied at 41 percent. Kasie Whitener, a libertarian, has five percent of the vote, and 13 percent are undecided.
An Impact Research memo declares, “This seat is very much in play, in part because of Dr. Annie Andrews’ favorable profile and the fact that newly-crowned Senator Darline Graham holds an overwhelming amount of baggage and is deeply unpopular.” So, hooray?
Impact Research is Andrews’s own pollster, so this is all slightly biased. It’s like your mother’s review of your middle school talent show performance. Still, Impact claims it “tested positive bios on each candidate” and “after introduction, Andrews takes a 5-point lead statewide, with an even wider 39-point lead among Independents – solidifying her Democratic base and winning over voters in the middle by large margins.”
Andrews — according to her “positive bio” — is “a mom and pediatrician. After nearly fifteen years caring for sick kids at the Children’s Hospital in Charleston, she saw how Washington’s corruption hurt kids and families while special interests and career politicians benefit. Andrews is running for Senate to fight for affordable healthcare, lower grocery and prescription drug prices, and take on Washington by passing term limits on all politicians, banning insider stock trading by members of Congress, and she’ll refuse corporate PAC money.”
This all sounds great, but I remain skeptical. Andrews is a compelling candidate if she were running in Virginia, Georgia, or even North Carolina, but my home state is very different. For one, the voters will eventually notice that Andrews hasn’t mentioned God or Jesus.
Democrats have a coalition that currently consists of white college-educated voters and people of color. Particularly in southern states that have recently flipped, Democrats started winning white college-educated voters, but in South Carolina, white college-educated voters remain solidly Republican, often voting no differently than white voters who only attend college for football games.
Virginia and Georgia’s major cities are Democratic strongholds. Joe Biden won Cobb County — Newt Gingrich’s former stomping grounds — by double digits in 2020. It was key to both Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s victories. Maricopa County is the largest in Arizona and winning there is how Trump and Gallego carried the state. However, Greenville County, the largest in South Carolina, went for Donald Trump by around 20 points in 2020 and 2024.
The suburban college-educated white Republican voters in South Carolina are likely social conservatives, as opposed to “just lower my taxes and lock up criminals” suburban moderates/conservatives in other places. Those voters are more reachable on terms that are comfortable for Democrats. Andrews’s website openly declares her pro-choice position as a priority: “Reproductive Freedom: Trust Women.” That’s nothing to hide from, even in South Carolina, as more than 80 percent of South Carolinians believe a woman should have access to an abortion if a pregnancy threatens her life or health. A similar number supports abortion access in the event of rape or incest. However, support for legal abortion is much lower — about 46 percent — for reasons beyond those limited parameters. Andrews’s position is more consistent with the national one.
Andrews’s campaign launch ad went after Lindsey Graham on his unwavering Trump support and how he voted to confirm all of Trump’s awful nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Andrews, a medical doctor, rightly blames for the state’s recent measles outbreak. But, again, this is South Carolina. Trump’s approval is underwater in my home state, but recent polling has him at a shockingly decent 43 percent. His approval is lower in Georgia, North Carolina, and even Florida.
Democrats who are bullish about Andrews will point to Doug Jones’s upset victory over mall-cruising pervert Roy Moore in a December 2017 special election, which he pulled off without winning white college-educated voters.
Jones promptly lost decisively in 2020 to Tommy Tuberville, who just barely meets the qualifications for sentience. He did about the same among white voters without a college degree, but Tuberville greatly improved upon Moore’s performance with college-educated white voters. Moore’s grossness made all the difference with this demo. However, Darline Graham is not Roy Moore. She has no real personal baggage, no mall-cop-alerting scandals. She’s just an idiot. Republicans have no problem electing idiots to the Senate.
The last Democratic senator from South Carolina was Fritz Hollings, who was also the first politician I met during my internship at The Greenville News. Hollings was known for his very Southern aphorisms, but perhaps my favorite is “There’s no education in the second kick of a mule.” In 1950, as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Hollings authored legislation that mandated the death penalty for lynching after the horrific 1947 lynching of 24-year-old Black man Willie Earle.
Hollings was governor of South Carolina from 1959 to 1963, when the Confederate flag started flying over the state house. He was politically ambivalent to civil rights as governor, doing little to actively support it but also not openly opposing racial progress. He was elected to the Senate in 1966, and the following year, he was one of only 11 senators who voted against Thurgood Marshall’s confirmation to the Supreme Court (though Tim Scott would’ve likely done the same).
Hollings was a political moderate but supportive of civil rights in his later career. He was the only sitting U.S. senator to endorse Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, praising Jackson’s platform. He served in the Senate for 38 years but declined to run for re-election in 2004. He was 82 but his retirement was an acknowledgement that no Democrat could win statewide in South Carolina’s current political environment. I wish I could share the hope that Dr. Annie Andrews might change this grim reality.
Well might as well just vote and see what happens. I know some folks like to decry Dems for cheerleading facially longshot candidates but at the same time excoriate Dems for not running candidates in hostile areas. At least making the effort is something.
After all, power—especially unreconstructed power—never concedes.
“just barely meets the qualifications for sentience“ Chefs kiss for this description.
Andrews wants Darline to debate her. Ms Darline needs to do a lot of studying for this next one if she does accept the challenge.
We all know Andrews is better. We also know that this is SC.