Annie Andrews, a Democrat, won the South Carolina Senate race on Nov. 3, flipping the seat from the Republicans.
Andrews defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Darline Graham and will become the first Democratic senator in the solidly Republican state in nearly three decades. The last time a Democrat won the state’s Senate seat was Fritz Hollings in 1998.
Andrews will succeed former Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July.
Andrews’s upset win comes as Democrats look to flip control of the Senate. She narrowly trailed in the polls leading up to the election. Graham held a 2.8 percentage point advantage over Andrews in the RealClearPolitics average.
Given the nature of the close race in what is considered a red state, the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republicans for Senate, allocated $5 million in support of Graham.
President Donald Trump endorsed Graham and said she is “a High Quality person, maybe the Highest.”
During the only debate of the campaign, Graham sought to tie Andrews to the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.
“Annie Andrews will not stand up to the Socialist Democratic Party. She’s only going to join them,” Graham said.
Andrews previously told Forbes: “I am not a socialist. I am running to be a pragmatic problem-solver.”
She ran on enacting a public option to expand health care options for South Carolinians, ending tax breaks for the wealthy, expanding affordable child care and paid family leave, and fighting corruption.
Graham campaigned on lowering taxes, securing the border, opposing abortion, standing with law enforcement, and protecting the Second Amendment.
During the debate, Andrews said Graham was “unserious and unqualified.” Graham said she was “just as qualified” as Andrews, whom she accused of having “flip-flopped on everything.”
Andrews criticized Graham for saying during a GOP runoff debate that national security is “not my thing.” Graham’s comment was in response to a question of whether protecting Taiwan and the South China Sea is in the U.S. interest. Graham responded that she is unafraid to say when she does not know something.
Voters in South Carolina who talked with The Epoch Times expressed varied sentiments.
Perry Wilder Jr. said he voted for the Andrews and the rest of the Democratic ticket “because we need change.”
“We can’t keep going doing the same thing, expect the same results,” he added. “South Carolina needs a different mindset.”
Nancy Biddlecom voted for Graham. She said she voted Republican because she does not like the Democrats as of late.
“The other side of the fence are the people I did not vote for,” she said. “They scare me.”
Margaret Weir, a registered Republican, voted for Andrews because she wants a change in Washington.
“I am a little concerned about how liberal some of the candidates might be, but we just have to change the government that’s in place right now and have an ability to have a balance in the Senate at this point,” she said.
She cared most about control of the Senate.
“There needs to be some control in our federal government that is completely out of control right now, and there needs to be some disciplinary action for what’s going on,” she said without specifying what action should be taken.
Keith Barads, an independent, said he voted for Graham and other Republicans because he likes Trump.
Chase Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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