Newsweek34%
Exclusive: Annie Andrews on How Lindsey Graham’s Death Shifted South Carolina Senate Race 46%
By Andrew Stanton15%
7/18/2026, 8:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Recency Bias, and Availability Heuristic, with Representativeness Heuristic as the most egregious example at 13.5% saturation with 212 hits. Analysis detected 2,208 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,575 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.9% and a BS Rank of 46% (11,636 of 21,180 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 54.90% of the article peer group.
Dr.
Annie Andrews, Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s U.S.
Senate race, told Newsweek the death of Senator Lindsey Graham has shaken up the election for Republicans but that her focus has not changed.
Graham, who had represented South Carolina in the Senate since 2003, died on July 11 from an aortic dissection.
His unexpected death shocked the Palmetto State and carries political implications for the midterm elections.
Graham was up for reelection and had already won his primary, meaning Republicans must now field a new candidate.
Andrews, a pediatrician who ran for Congress in 2022, also won her primary in June.
She faces an uphill battle in South Carolina, which last voted Democratic at the presidential level in 1976.
It backed President Donald Trump by 18 points in 2024, solidifying its status as a reliably Republican state.
But Andrews told Newsweek in a phone interview Friday morning she believes 2026 could be the year it flips to Democrats.
Andrews said that while her opponent is going to change, the challenges faced by the state remain the same.
“It certainly has been quite a political shake-up, particularly on the Republican side because for me, the events of this weekend changed who I’m running against, but it didn't change who I'm running for,” Andrews said.
“The problems that South Carolinians face didn't change over the weekend.
My motivations to get involved in politics didn't change, nor what I will focus on when I get to Washington, D.C.”
Annie Andrews Sees Path to Flipping South Carolina
The 2026 midterms could present Democrats an opportunity to win in South Carolina despite its longtime conservative lean, Andrews said, adding that she hears along the campaign trail from Republicans that their party has become too “extreme.”
“When I talk to Republicans, as I do at nearly every one of our campaign events, they talk about the fact that they don't recognize their own party anymore, and they want their party to come back to the center-right, to be the party of John McCain,” she said.
Republican voters understand the way to do that is to vote for Democrats so the GOP can “figure out how to self-correct,” she said, adding that she believes it is important to have a healthy, two-party system.
“We need to get back to the age of where bipartisanship, working across the aisle, was considered a positive attribute in a lawmaker and not the kiss of death for a lawmaker.”
She said she is keen on running a “forward-focused” campaign and talking to voters as Republicans figure out who their nominee will be.
“Republicans are going to be duking it out for this nomination.
It's very rare to have an open Senate seat in South Carolina.
So there's a lot of people who are clamoring for this nomination.
They will be fighting each other for the next several weeks.
And when I finally have an opponent, they're going to be starting from scratch,” she said.
Andrews previously challenged Representative Nancy Mace in South Carolina's 1st District in 2022.
The district is based around South Carolina's Lowcountry and suburbs of Charleston.
Mace won the race by about 14 points.
Before entering politics, Andrews worked as a pediatrician.
Lindsey Graham Should Be Remembered for Love of South Carolina, Andrews Says
The Democrat, a 45-year-old mother with three children, said she hopes—regardless of partisan politics—that Graham will be remembered for his love of his home state.
“When someone dies, we need to remember we all have a shared humanity and that life is fragile and that life is bigger than politics.
My hope is that he is remembered for his love of the great state of South Carolina and his record of service to South Carolina,” Andrews said.
Healthcare, Impeaching RFK Jr.
Would Be Top Priority for Andrews in the Senate
Andrews said she began considering running for Senate the same day Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. was nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kennedy’s position on vaccines has drawn widespread scrutiny from public health officials.
“As a practicing pediatrician, RFK Jr. has been my professional arch-nemesis for quite some time,” she said.
“For decades, he has been peddling in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.”
She said if elected, she would focus on doing “everything” she could do to impeach Kennedy, stop impending Medicaid budget cuts and fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health.
Andrews cited the South Carolina measles outbreak as an example of how his criticism of vaccinations is impacting public health.
“As a result of increased rates of vaccine refusal amongst parents in America, we had a measles outbreak in South Carolina where we had nearly 1,000 documented cases of the measles.
Children were getting sick, suffering unnecessarily because of the irresponsibility of RFK Jr.,” she said.
Which Republicans Are Running to Succeed Lindsey Graham?
As of Friday, only Mark Lynch, a Greenville-area businessman, confirmed plans to run in the new GOP primary, telling The New York Times he would commit an additional $5 million to his campaign to “finish the race we started.”
He challenged Graham in the primary, receiving just under 29 percent support.
Other potential contenders include those candidates who ran unsuccessful bids in the gubernatorial race.
Representative Ralph Norman said on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria that he is “interested in the job” but has not made a formal announcement.
Mace is also viewed as a potential candidate who has not said for sure she plans to run.
Both Mace and Norman lost in the gubernatorial primary in June.
Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette told CBS News it was “disheartening” that the conversation in South Carolina became political so soon after Graham’s death, adding that there will “be a time for that.”
She has not said whether she intends to seek the nomination.
Senator Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister who was appointed to serve the remainder of his term, has not said whether or not she plans to seek a full term as of Friday evening.
Trump on Truth Social said he asked her to run in the Republican primary, writing that “there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother.”
Representative Russell Fry and former Representative Trey Gowdy have also been named as potential candidates.
Some Republicans including Representative William Timmons, former Governor Nikki Haley and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said they do not plan to run.
An Emerson College poll released this week showed Norman leading potential candidates with 16 percent, followed by Lynch at 13 percent, and Mace and Evette at 10 percent.
It surveyed 500 likely voters on July 14 and July 15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
It's the first poll of potential candidates following Graham's death.
South Carolina Special Election: What to Know
Under South Carolina law, Senate vacancies are filled through a special election, with the governor making an interim appointment until voters elect a successor.
The South Carolina Election Commission announced that the special election will be on August 11, with early voting from August 5 to August 7.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is July 31.
The commission publishes a list of early-voting locations in each county.
If necessary, a runoff would be on August 25, with early voting from August 19 to August 21, according to the commission.
The voting threshold to avoid a runoff is 50 percent plus one vote.
Candidate filing will run from July 21 to July 28.
Can Annie Andrews Flip South Carolina?
Justin Vaughn, professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University, previously told Newsweek the eventual Republican nominee would be favored in a general election due to the state’s conservative lean.
“South Carolina is a strong Republican state—President Trump carried the state easily in 2024—and despite the scramble Senator Graham’s passing caused in the GOP, it is still a safe Republican seat,” he said.
Only a handful of Democratic internal polls had been released for the Graham-Andrews matchup, but they showed a potentially close race.
The most recent survey, an Impact Research poll conducted from June 17 to June 22 among 700 likely voters showed Graham leading 48 percent to 45 percent.
At the presidential level, South Carolina last voted for a Democratic candidate—former President Jimmy Carter—in 1976 and has given double-digit victories to Republicans in recent cycles.
Trump won by 18 points in 2024, nearly 12 points in 2020 and 14 points in 2016.
The state backed Mitt Romney by 10 points in 2012 and John McCain by 9 points in 2008.
South Carolina last elected a Democratic senator in 1998, when it sent Ernest Hollings to Congress’ upper chamber.
Democrats have tried to make the state competitive in recent cycles, generally have a high floor but low ceiling there.
It’s home to a high population of Black voters, and cities like Charleston and Columbia are more Democratic.
But the more rural areas and suburbs, and a high level of racial polarization, have continued to give an advantage to the GOP.
In 2020, Democrat Jaime Harrison drew significant media attention and fundraising in his bid to unseat Graham but ended up losing by about 10 points.
In 2018, the most recent “blue wave” election cycle, Republican Governor Henry McMaster won by 8 points, a relatively close race by South Carolina standards.
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