Race between sibling of former Senator Lindsey Graham, Democrat Annie Andrews has tightened in deep-red state.
United States President Donald Trump is set to travel to South Carolina to boost the campaign of Darline Graham, the sister of his close ally, the late Senator Lindsey Graham.
The visit on Wednesday, which will include a rally alongside Graham, comes as the Senate race in deep-red South Carolina has grown uncomfortably close for Republicans.
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Lindsey Graham, long one of the most hawkish members of the Senate who was an outspoken supporter of the US-Israel war on Iran, had been expected to sail to victory in the November 3 vote. But his unexpected death in July upended the race.
South Carolina’s governor tapped Darline Graham to finish her brother’s term. Trump then made the surprise move of endorsing Graham in a new Republican primary, helping her to claim the party’s nomination. The president said the endorsement was “in honour of her brother”.
In a video message last week, Trump again said Graham had his unconditional support.
“I’m asking everyone in South Carolina to get out and vote for a wonderful person, a great woman … a woman that Lindsey Graham said is the greatest person he’s ever met,” Trump said.
Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a medical doctor and paediatrician, has seized on Graham’s inexperience and her unorthodox route to the Republican nomination.
Speaking to a local Fox News affiliate before Trump’s rally in Pendleton, South Carolina, Andrews pointed to Graham’s lacklustre debate performance, including one instance where she said she was “not that informed on national security”.
“My opponent needs the highest level of federal government politicians to speak for her. On the debate stage, it was really clear,” Andrews said.
Graham, meanwhile, has called Andrews “the most radical liberal that’s ever run for state office in South Carolina”.
Polls have shown Graham leading by about 2.7 percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average. Trump carried the state by 18 percentage points in 2024.
Tensions on Russia
Trump’s visit comes after the president issued an executive order waiving most sanctions and tariffs on Russia, established by a law named after Lindsey Graham and passed with bipartisan support in 2026.
The move prompted a tempered rebuke from Darline Graham.
“Personally, I would choose to put the pressure on Russia to end the war and get gas prices down,” she told The Associated Press news agency on Saturday.
“I don’t trust Putin, and I don’t trust Russia,” she said.
The executive order on sanctions has been part of a wider Trump administration shift in its approach to ending the war with Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2024.
Trump and his allies have heaped pressure on Ukraine, framing its leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the main impediment to peace. In turn, Washington has offered several concessions to Russia, including a deal to buy Russian diesel.
Lindsey Graham had been a staunch supporter of Ukraine. His death came shortly after he returned from his 10th visit to the country since the war began.
Political headwinds
The tightening race in South Carolina underscores the harsh political reality for Republicans heading into the final stretch of the midterms.
Trump has sought to use his political clout to bring party loyalists out to vote, campaigning in strongholds across the country. But the president heads into the vote with the lowest approval ratings of his career, with voters expressing dismay about affordability and the knock-on effects of the US-Israel war with Iran.
Beyond South Carolina, other one-time Republican strongholds have shown signs of shifting towards Democrats.
That includes Kansas, where polls suggest Republican Ashley Hinson is effectively tied with Democrat Joshua Turek. The state, where farmers have been particularly hard hit by rising prices on fuel and equipment, has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1939.
Trump also broke from the Republican establishment to endorse Attorney General Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn in the Texas primary. Polling averages show Paxton, whose career has been marred by a procession of scandals, trailing behind Democratic challenger Talarico by 1.7 percentage points. The race is widely considered a toss-up.
A Republican has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994.