South Carolina has emerged as perhaps the most surprising Senate race to be competitive late in the 2026 midterm elections. And on Sunday night, appointed GOP Sen. Darline Graham, Democrat Annie Andrews and Libertarian nominee Kasie Whitener took part in the only debate currently scheduled in the race.
The debate was often contentious, with both Graham and Andrews taking aim at each other.
Andrews focused on the idea that Graham — the late former Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, whom President Donald Trump plucked from obscurity to succeed him — is the choice of political insiders and not running a serious campaign. She at one point alluded to an embarrassing moment at a primary runoff debate in which Graham said, “National security is not my thing.”
“If your surgeon said that appendectomies aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No,” Andrews said. “So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the US Senate? She is unserious and unqualified.”
Graham also hit Andrews early and often, seeking to tie her to the political left. And she repeatedly took offense to the attacks that Andrews lodged, accusing Andrews of going after her family.
Below are some takeaways from the debate.
Graham avoided another major flub
Job No. 1 for Graham was avoiding a moment like the one on national security. And she cleared that bar.
At that GOP debate against Rep. Ralph Norman, she was asked a relatively basic — at least for a senator — question about US foreign policy interests in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Seemingly not knowing where to go with it, she just admitted that she didn’t know much about the issue.
At the same debate, she also mistakenly cited 50 million people living in South Carolina, when the actual number is less than 6 million.
That doesn’t mean Sunday was smooth sailing. Graham paused awkwardly at times. She struggled to make some of her attack lines, such as on transgender rights, land. Some of her claims — like that Iran nearly had a nuclear weapon before the US and Israel launched the war earlier this year — don’t actually appear true.
But for a Republican running in a pretty red state, she came across as more capable than before.
Graham came out swinging
That being said, Graham seemed to confirm that her campaign is quite concerned about Andrews, judging by how much time she spent attacking the Democrat.
It started almost instantly, with Graham calling Andrews “most radical liberal that’s ever run for state office in South Carolina” in her first answer.
She accused Andrews of supporting government-run healthcare, which Andrews denied. She pointed to Andrews’ past work on gun control issues. She attacked Andrews for opposing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” and for having the support of Jane Fonda’s political action committee.
And after Andrews mentioned her primary runoff debate moment, Graham accused her of lying about her liberal positions.
“Let’s talk about what’s not your thing. Your thing, apparently, is not being honest with the people of South Carolina. At least I’m honest. If I don’t know something, I am glad to say it, and I’ll say it again tonight,” she said. “But you are deceiving the people of South Carolina. You have flip-flopped on everything. There’s so many social media posts out there to prove different. Shame on you.”
The attacks confirmed the competitiveness of the race. The national GOP recently turned heads by spending $5 million to shore up Graham’s campaign.
Andrews distanced herself from the Democratic Party and the left
But Andrews had a pretty memorable answer for much of it.
“She’s been told to come out here and call me Bernie Ocasio Mamdani; that’s what’s in her script,” Andrews said, referring to a trio of democratic socialist lawmakers. “But the truth is: My name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn’t be any confusion about that because, unlike my opponent, I haven’t changed my name recently.”
Graham opted not to use her married name — Darline Graham Nordone — when she was appointed as a senator.
“My legal name is Graham and has always been Graham,” she said. “And you know why it’s Graham? Because I lost my parents when I was a little girl, and I kept the name Graham so that I felt connected to them.”
At another point in the debate, Andrews said that “both parties have failed on immigration” and that “Democrats have failed on the border.”
Andrews added: “And the truth is, I support the Second Amendment. I believe we need a secure border, and we need to deport illegal immigrants who break the law, and yes, I want to lower taxes on the middle class.”
Graham tries to make transgender attacks land
Few attacks have been as central to the race as the GOP’s efforts to focus on transgender issues.
Just in the last week, Trump posted on social media using an anti-transgender slur for Andrews, and Andrews launched a direct-to-camera ad defending herself on the issue.
But if you blinked, you might have missed it Sunday night.
Graham brought it up twice, but only briefly. And she did so both times at the end of an answer, right before the debate quickly moved on. That included at the very end of the debate.
“But let’s talk about a couple of other concerns I have — that she’s deceiving the people of South Carolina with these transgender issues,” Graham said in the final words of the night.
The debate moderator quickly signaled the debate had to end there, and it was over.
That was a win for Andrews, in that she didn’t really have to answer for the issue — or explain her 2022 comments on social media calling a state law banning transgender athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams at public schools “shameful.”
Graham defended the Iran war
Andrews repeatedly pointed to Graham declining to vote with Democrats and a few Republicans to bringing the Iran war to an end, noting Graham has had three chances to do so.
Graham responded by claiming that Iran nearly had a nuclear weapon — which is not backed up by known US intelligence.
But unlike some GOP Senate candidates who have said the war needs to end, she went a little further in defending the need to give Trump more time. She argued Iran is being strangled financially.
“Why in the world would we stop now when they are still dangerous and we are close to ending the war?” Graham said. “Again, I think the president wants to end the war. I know he does. We all want the war to end. But I support a strong military. I believe in peace through strength.”
Few mentions of Trump
Few things loomed as large over the debate as Trump; his unpopularity is a major reason South Carolina and other deep-red states are as competitive this fall. But he wasn’t a major focus.
There was the occasional mention of something Trump has done, but he wasn’t really a focal point for anybody. In fact, the word “Trump” was only uttered a handful of times. Graham mentioned the president just a few times, praising him for creating an AI task force and waiving restrictions on red-dye diesel.
Even when Andrews was arguing Graham was the pick of insiders, she didn’t actually cite the one insider above all who elevated Graham: Trump.
And when talking about the war, she generally didn’t attach it to the president.
That perhaps shouldn’t be too surprising from the Democrat. While Trump is broadly unpopular nationwide, this is still a state he won by 18 points in 2024.
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This article originally appeared on CNN at https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/11/politics/south-carolina-senate-debate-takeaways-darline-graham-annie-andrews