Annie Andrews plans bipartisan Senate work after South Carolina win

Stopping Medicaid budget cuts tops Andrews’s Washington agenda

NPR reported that Democrat Annie Andrews won South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat over Republican incumbent Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, and told the outlet in a Nov. 4 interview that she would take office in January. Her victory came as Democrats flipped seats in many states, including South Carolina. Andrews said her immediate agenda in Washington would center on stopping Medicaid budget cuts, delivering constituent services and building working relationships across the Senate.

NPR host Mary Louise Kelly asked Andrews how she would have reacted if South Carolina had elected a senator who supported abortion rights and some gun-control measures, and whether that senator could be Andrews. Andrews said she would not have believed it. She had decided at age 4 to become a doctor, never expected to work in politics and spent 20 years practicing pediatrics in a children’s hospital.

Andrews said the problems she saw in the hospital exam room drove her into politics. She described cases in which insurance companies stood between sick children and needed care, and parents worried after diagnoses of chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes whether they could afford prescribed inhalers or insulin. She said families across South Carolina faced similar problems and that she would carry those experiences into the Senate.

Kelly asked about national security and foreign policy as Andrews prepared to take on a Senate role after working as a South Carolina pediatrician. Andrews said she had done her homework throughout her life, including the preparation required to enter and graduate from medical school, and would be ready for the job on Day 1. She said Republican opponent Darline Graham’s admission during a summer debate that she was not that informed on national security set the tone for what many South Carolinians thought about Graham. Andrews argued that the more important election message was that South Carolina had rejected the idea that Washington, D.C., would pick the next senator and had instead chosen her as an independent voice willing to work across the aisle. She also said she would carry problems heard during the previous 18 months on the campaign trail to Washington.

Republican former Gov. Nikki Haley said South Carolina voters had not voted for Andrews but against Trump Republicans. Asked whether both interpretations could be true, Andrews said she had built a campaign for everyone and brought people across the political spectrum together. She cited the endorsement of former Republican South Carolina Gov. David Beasley and support from Ralph Norman’s children, including his son, Warren Norman. Andrews said voters were more concerned about what was happening in South Carolina than about party politics in Washington and were tired of divisiveness.

Andrews said the only two senators she had spoken to since winning were Graham and Republican Sen. Tim Scott. She and Scott were planning to meet the following week, and she said they did not agree on many issues but did agree that South Carolina needed two people in the Senate who would work to solve the state’s problems. Andrews said she looked forward to a new era of bipartisanship in Washington.

Kelly also asked how Andrews would work with President Donald Trump, who had said he planned to use his veto power aggressively. Andrews said she would work with anyone willing to solve problems and that she would work with Trump specifically. She said she supported ending taxes on tips and Social Security and cited Trump’s work to lower prescription-drug costs. She compared governing to hospital care, saying problems should be addressed regardless of a patient’s or family’s background, political ideology or insurance.

Kelly raised South Carolina’s role in the first Democratic primary of 2028. Andrews said she was not focused on that contest and instead wanted to build the strongest Senate office South Carolina had ever seen and deliver the best constituent services in the state. Her first priority in Washington, she said, would be stopping Medicaid budget cuts.