Trump boosts Darline Graham in South Carolina as Senate race tightens

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Oct 29, 2026

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President Donald Trump on Thursday headed to South Carolina to boost Republican Sen. Darline Graham as polls show a surprisingly tight midterm race in the deep-red Palmetto State.

With Election Day looming on Tuesday, Trump called on voters to back the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham to succeed him for a full term.

Trump mostly rattled through a familiar laundry list of supposed accomplishments of his second term and spewed insults against Graham’s Democratic rival Annie Andrews, using a slur for transgender people.

“On election night, South Carolina is going to show that America belongs to those who love it,” the president said, before inviting Graham to speak briefly.

“He was a great politician,” Trump said of Lindsey Graham. “She’s got the gene.”

“Lindsey considered you one of his dearest friends and you will always be considered part of the Graham family,” Graham responded. “We love you.”

Graham was originally appointed to fill her unmarried brother’s seat as a placeholder after his sudden death last summer. With Trump’s backing, she decided to run for a full term and won a Republican primary and run-off by a narrow 4% margin.

It was Trump’s second trip to South Carolina in a month, trips that reflect Republican uneasiness about the upcoming election even in a state that Trump won by 20% in 2024.

A poll released this week by the New York Times showed a shocking dead heat between Andrews and Graham, who has turned off some Republicans with her apparent lack of preparation for the job and a stumbling debate performance in which she admitted “foreign policy is not my thing.”

Conservative Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who lost a primary to Graham, says he doesn’t plan to campaign with her and a handful of moderate GOP figures have even endorsed Andrews.

“It’s a f—ing train wreck,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Voters in South Carolina have not sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly three decades.

Andrews, a mother of three who previously ran unsuccessfully for a House seat, is urging voters seeking change to “try something new for once.”

The situation in South Carolina is similar to that of other deep-red states where Democratic candidates are running unexpectedly close races as the GOP faces a blue wave fueled by Trump’s deep unpopularity even in his strongholds.

Democrats likely need to flip at least four GOP-held seats to regain control of the Senate. But if Andrews were to win in South Carolina it would likely mean Democrats would pick up closer to 6 or 7 seats in what would amount to a major landslide.

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