Sen. Lindsey Graham gets a 2026 challenge from Democrat Annie Andrews,
who ran against Nancy Mace
[May 29, 2025]
By MEG KINNARD
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Dr. Annie Andrews, the South Carolina Democrat who
unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, says she's running
against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2026, challenging the
four-term incumbent in part due to what she characterized as his
waffling positions over the course of his political career.
“He’s changed his position on nearly every issue over that time and
that’s because, in my view, he doesn’t stand for anything or believe in
anything other than what it takes to get reelected,” Andrews, a
pediatrician in Charleston, told The Associated Press before a campaign
rollout Thursday.
In her launch video, Andrews says it’s “embarrassing” to see how
politicians like Graham — at the moment one of President Donald Trump’s
top Senate allies — have swung from criticizing Trump to working to gain
his favor. The video features archival video of Graham bemoaning critics
who called Trump a “kook” and then, a year earlier, using the same term
to describe his former GOP primary foe in the 2016 presidential contest.
Andrews also levies criticism at Graham for voting to confirm Trump’s
Cabinet picks and for his relationship with Elon Musk, describing “an
unelected billionaire ... taking a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare
and veterans’ healthcare.” She calls Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “a
guy who can’t even organize a text thread,” a reference to the recent
Signal chat scandal in which war plans were discussed.
No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina in decades, and
Republicans in recent history typically take statewide seats by
double-digit margins. When he last ran in 2020, Graham defeated his
Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.
That contest turned into South Carolina’s most expensive ever, with both
candidates posting record fundraising that surpassed $200 million total
and continued to grow in the race’s closing days. Harrison, who went on
to chair the Democratic National Committee, became the first U.S. Senate
candidate to amass a war chest of more than $100 million over the course
of the race.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., questions Secretary of State Marco
Rubio as he testifies before the Senate Committee on Appropriations
subcommittee hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request
for the U.S. Department of State on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Andrews was the Democratic nominee who unsuccessfully sought to
unseat Mace in 2022, losing to the Republican by 14 percentage
points. South Carolina's 1st District, which spans the state's
southern coast, is the only one to have flipped from red to blue in
decades, when Joe Cunningham won it for Democrats for a single term
in the 2018 election. Mace won it in 2020 and has been reelected
twice, although in 2026 she is eyeing a race for governor.
In the years since her House run, Andrews stepped away from her
practice at the Medical University of South Carolina and founded a
political organization focused on issues related to children,
including climate change, gun violence and childhood poverty.
According to federal filings, an affiliated political action
committee, Their Future PAC, gave $7,000 to a handful of candidates
in the 2024 cycle and had about $5,000 on hand at the end of 2024.
Asked about Democrats' lackluster statewide record in the state,
Andrews said she felt Harrison's effort was “hamstrung” by necessary
precautions in place during the pandemic. Now, she said, voters feel
strained under the effects of the Trump administration's “chaotic”
policies.
"Lindsey Graham has had 22 years to make things better for folks
here in South Carolina, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find
many voters who could articulate in what way Lindsey has made their
life better," Andrews said.
Graham, seeking his fifth Senate term, kicked off his reelection
campaign in February, announcing that Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen.
Tim Scott would chair his effort. Scott, the state’s junior senator,
is serving as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, the chamber’s campaign arm.
At least one Republican has announced a primary challenge to Graham.
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