The projected result delivers Democrats their first statewide victory in 28 years
Annie Andrews, a former paediatrician, was on course to win the United States Senate seat in South Carolina on Tuesday, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner. CBS called the projected outcome a stunning upset in the midterm elections.
Republican candidate Darline Graham was projected to have lost. The result was reported as a projection rather than a settled outcome, with Graham projected to have lost and Andrews on course to win. If that holds, Democrats would record their first statewide victory in South Carolina in 28 years.
Graham had held the seat since July, when President Donald Trump backed her appointment to fill it after the sudden death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. BBC News described Lindsey Graham as a close Trump ally who died after a “brief and sudden illness.”
Her brother, Lindsey Graham, was elected to the Senate in 2002. BBC News described him as “one of Washington’s most influential voices on foreign policy” and reported that he often pushed for US military intervention overseas. His death set in motion the sequence that produced this race: an appointment in July, a primary, and then a matchup with Democrat Annie Andrews.
Darline Graham, the political newcomer who took the seat by appointment, won the primary to contest her late brother’s US Senate seat. Her inexperience on foreign policy became a campaign issue. She acknowledged her lack of political experience, particularly after stumbling during a foreign-policy question in a debate.
Asked about the US stance towards Taiwan, Graham said: “National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.”
In the primary, she conceded that she was “not that informed on national security.”
The race came in a state Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024, and it decided a seat Republicans have held since 2002.
If the projection holds, Andrews would take the Senate seat from a Trump-backed appointee and deliver the statewide victory Democrats have not had in South Carolina for 28 years. Graham would leave the seat her brother won in 2002.