Defeating Trump’s handpicked candidate, Democrat Annie Andrews wins Senate seat long held by warmonger Lindsey Graham

This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article.

By Bret Wilkins

In a stunning midterm upset that boosted Democrats’ chances of controlling the US Senate, pediatrician Annie Andrews defeated Republican incumbent Darline Graham in South Carolina, flipping a seat long held by her late brother, consummate warmonger Lindsey Graham.

For the first time since 1998, voters elected a Democrat to the Senate in a state that Trump won by 18 points in 2024. It’s also the first time that the Palmetto State has elected a woman senator.

“South Carolina, you have shown the nation—in an era of partisan divides, of vitriol and name-calling, in a politics dominated by billionaires, special interests, and insiders in Washington—that we will not bow down,” Andrews said Tuesday night. “We will not back down. And we will chart our own course.”

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Andrews, 45, campaigned on expanding healthcare access, tackling the worsening affordability crisis, and fighting corruption. She defeated Graham, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by her brother’s death in July before winning the Republican nomination for a full six-year upper chamber term.

“A Democratic senator? From South Carolina? It’s not just possible—it’s now reality,” said Slate political reporter Ben Jacobs after major media outlets projected Andrews’ victory.

Former National Nurses United communications chief Charles Idelson posted on social media, “Trump’s handpicked candidate gets bounced, oh well.”

The contest in the deeply red state became unexpectedly competitive as Graham struggled to establish herself as a credible successor to her brother. During her primary campaign, she acknowledged that she was “not that informed on national security,” an admission Andrews successfully seized upon.

“South Carolina, if your surgeon said that appendectomies aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No,” Andrews said last month. “So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the US Senate?”

Some observers argued that Darline Graham’s lack of foreign policy acumen was actually less dangerous than her brother’s inveterate warmongering. As American Prospect executive editor David Dayen remarked following Lindsey Graham’s death, the late senator “never met a war he didn’t want to send your kids to.”

Former US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hailed Andrews’ triumph, posting on social media, “There is no such thing as a permanently red state!”

“Dr. Annie Andrews’ victory tonight proves that Democrats across the country can win anywhere when we show up and put the hard work in,” he added. “Congratulations, Annie!”

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