Takeaways from the South Carolina Senate debate

South Carolina has emerged as perhaps the most surprising Senate race to be competitive late in the 2026 midterm elections. And on Sunday night, appointed GOP Sen. Darline Graham, Democrat Annie Andrews and Libertarian nominee Kasie Whitener took part in the only debate currently scheduled in the race.

The debate was often contentious, with both Graham and Andrews taking aim at each other.

Andrews focused on the idea that Graham — the late former Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, whom President Donald Trump plucked from obscurity to succeed him — is the choice of political insiders and not running a serious campaign. She at one point alluded to an embarrassing moment at a primary runoff debate in which Graham said, “National security is not my thing.”

“If your surgeon said that appendectomies aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No,” Andrews said. “So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the US Senate? She is unserious and unqualified.”

Graham also hit Andrews early and often, seeking to tie her to the political left. And she repeatedly took offense to the attacks that Andrews lodged, accusing Andrews of going after her family.

Below are some takeaways from the debate.

Job No. 1 for Graham was avoiding a moment like the one on national security. And she cleared that bar.

At that GOP debate against Rep. Ralph Norman, she was asked a relatively basic — at least for a senator — question about US foreign policy interests in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Seemingly not knowing where to go with it, she just admitted that she didn’t know much about the issue.

At the same debate, she also mistakenly cited 50 million people living in South Carolina, when the actual number is less than 6 million.

That doesn’t mean Sunday was smooth sailing. Graham paused awkwardly at times. She struggled to make some of her attack lines, such as on transgender rights, land. Some of her claims — like that Iran nearly had a nuclear weapon before the US and Israel launched the war earlier this year — don’t actually appear true.

But for a Republican running in a pretty red state, she came across as more capable than before.

That being said, Graham seemed to confirm that her campaign is quite concerned about Andrews, judging by how much time she spent attacking the Democrat.

It started almost instantly, with Graham calling Andrews “most radical liberal that’s ever run for state office in South Carolina” in her first answer.

She accused Andrews of supporting government-run healthcare, which Andrews denied. She pointed to Andrews’ past work on gun control issues. She attacked Andrews for opposing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” and for having the support of Jane Fonda’s political action committee.

And after Andrews mentioned her primary runoff debate moment, Graham accused her of lying about her liberal positions.

“Let’s talk about what’s not your thing. Your thing, apparently, is not being honest with the people of South Carolina. At least I’m honest. If I don’t know something, I am glad to say it, and I’ll say it again tonight,” she said. “But you are deceiving the people of South Carolina. You have flip-flopped on everything. There’s so many social media posts out there to prove different. Shame on you.”

The attacks confirmed the competitiveness of the race. The national GOP recently turned heads by spending $5 million to shore up Graham’s campaign.

But Andrews had a pretty memorable answer for much of it.

“She’s been told to come out here and call me Bernie Ocasio Mamdani; that’s what’s in her script,” Andrews said, referring to a trio of democratic socialist lawmakers. “But the truth is: My name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn’t be any confusion about that because, unlike my opponent, I haven’t changed my name recently.”

Graham opted not to use her married name — Darline Graham Nordone — when she was appointed as a senator.

“My legal name is Graham and has always been Graham,” she said. “And you know why it’s Graham? Because I lost my parents when I was a little girl, and I kept the name Graham so that I felt connected to them.”

At another point in the debate, Andrews said that “both parties have failed on immigration” and that “Democrats have failed on the border.”

Andrews added: “And the truth is, I support the Second Amendment. I believe we need a secure border, and we need to deport illegal immigrants who break the law, and yes, I want to lower taxes on the middle class.”

Few attacks have been as central to the race as the GOP’s efforts to focus on transgender issues.

Just in the last week, Trump posted on social media using an anti-transgender slur for Andrews, and Andrews launched a direct-to-camera ad defending herself on the issue.

But if you blinked, you might have missed it Sunday night.

Graham brought it up twice, but only briefly. And she did so both times at the end of an answer, right before the debate quickly moved on. That included at the very end of the debate.

“But let’s talk about a couple of other concerns I have — that she’s deceiving the people of South Carolina with these transgender issues,” Graham said in the final words of the night.

The debate moderator quickly signaled the debate had to end there, and it was over.

That was a win for Andrews, in that she didn’t really have to answer for the issue — or explain her 2022 comments on social media calling a state law banning transgender athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams at public schools “shameful.”

Andrews repeatedly pointed to Graham declining to vote with Democrats and a few Republicans to bringing the Iran war to an end, noting Graham has had three chances to do so.

Graham responded by claiming that Iran nearly had a nuclear weapon — which is not backed up by known US intelligence.

But unlike some GOP Senate candidates who have said the war needs to end, she went a little further in defending the need to give Trump more time. She argued Iran is being strangled financially.

“Why in the world would we stop now when they are still dangerous and we are close to ending the war?” Graham said. “Again, I think the president wants to end the war. I know he does. We all want the war to end. But I support a strong military. I believe in peace through strength.”

Few things loomed as large over the debate as Trump; his unpopularity is a major reason South Carolina and other deep-red states are as competitive this fall. But he wasn’t a major focus.

There was the occasional mention of something Trump has done, but he wasn’t really a focal point for anybody. In fact, the word “Trump” was only uttered a handful of times. Graham mentioned the president just a few times, praising him for creating an AI task force and waiving restrictions on red-dye diesel .

Even when Andrews was arguing Graham was the pick of insiders, she didn’t actually cite the one insider above all who elevated Graham: Trump.

And when talking about the war, she generally didn’t attach it to the president.

That perhaps shouldn’t be too surprising from the Democrat. While Trump is broadly unpopular nationwide, this is still a state he won by 18 points in 2024.

南卡罗来纳州或许是2026年中期选举中最令人意外的参议院席位争夺战。周日晚，共和党参议员达琳·格雷厄姆、民主党候选人安妮·安德鲁斯和自由党候选人凯西·惠特纳参加了目前该州唯一一场已安排的辩论。

这场辩论常常充满争议，格雷厄姆和安德鲁斯都互相攻击。

安德鲁斯着重指出，格雷厄姆——已故前参议员林赛·格雷厄姆的妹妹，被唐纳德·特朗普总统从默默无闻中提拔出来接替他——是政治圈内人士的选择，而非真正意义上的竞选。她一度提到格雷厄姆在初选决胜轮辩论中尴尬的一句话：“国家安全不是我擅长的领域。”

“如果你的外科医生说阑尾切除手术不是他的强项，你还会把手术刀交给他吗？当然不会，”安德鲁斯说。“那么，我们为什么要让达琳·格雷厄姆在美国参议院连任一届？她既不认真，也不胜任。”

格雷厄姆也对安德鲁斯展开了猛烈的攻击，试图将她与左翼政治联系起来。她还多次对安德鲁斯的攻击表示不满，指责安德鲁斯攻击她的家人。

以下是本次辩论的一些要点。

格雷厄姆的首要任务是避免重蹈国家安全覆辙。而她也确实做到了这一点。

在与众议员拉尔夫·诺曼的共和党辩论中，她被问到一个相对基础的问题——至少对一位参议员来说——关于美国在台湾和南海的外交政策利益。她似乎不知如何作答，只好承认自己对这个问题了解不多。

在同一场辩论中，她还错误地引用了南卡罗来纳州 5000 万人口的说法，而实际数字不到 600 万。

但这并不意味着周日的演讲一帆风顺。格雷厄姆的发言有时显得有些尴尬。她的一些攻击性言论，例如关于跨性别者权利的言论，似乎难以奏效。她的一些说法——比如伊朗在今年早些时候美国和以色列发动战争之前几乎拥有核武器——实际上似乎并不属实。

但对于一位在共和党占绝对优势的州参选的共和党候选人来说，她展现出了比以往更胜任的能力。

也就是说，从格雷厄姆花费大量时间攻击这位民主党候选人来看，她似乎证实了她的竞选团队对安德鲁斯相当担忧。

几乎立刻，格雷厄姆在第一个回答中就称安德鲁斯是“南卡罗来纳州有史以来竞选州级公职的最激进的自由派人士”。

她指责安德鲁斯支持政府运营的医疗保健体系，安德鲁斯否认了这一指控。她还指出安德鲁斯过去在枪支管制问题上的工作。她抨击安德鲁斯反对特朗普总统的“一项宏伟法案”，并指责他得到了简·方达政治行动委员会的支持。

安德鲁斯提到她在初选决胜辩论中的表现后，格雷厄姆指责她谎称自己的自由派立场。

“咱们来谈谈你不擅长的事吧。显然，你不擅长的就是对南卡罗来纳州的人民不诚实。至少我很诚实。如果我不知道什么，我很乐意承认，今晚我还会再说一遍，”她说道。“但你却在欺骗南卡罗来纳州的人民。你对所有事情都反复无常。社交媒体上那么多帖子可以证明并非如此。真为你感到羞耻。”

这些袭击事件证实了选情的激烈程度。共和党全国委员会最近斥资500万美元支持格雷厄姆的竞选活动，此举引起了广泛关注。

但安德鲁斯对其中大部分问题都给出了令人印象深刻的回答。

“她被告知要出来叫我伯尼·奥卡西奥·马姆达尼；她的稿子上就是这么写的，”安德鲁斯说道，她指的是三位民主社会主义议员。“但事实是：我的名字是安妮·安德鲁斯，这一点不应该造成任何误解，因为与我的对手不同，我最近没有改过名字。”

格雷厄姆在被任命为参议员时，选择不使用她的婚后姓名——达琳·格雷厄姆·诺顿。

“我的法定名字是格雷厄姆，一直都是格雷厄姆，”她说。“你知道为什么是格雷厄姆吗？因为我小时候父母双亡，我保留了格雷厄姆这个名字，这样我就能感觉和他们有某种联系。”

在辩论的另一部分，安德鲁斯表示，“两党在移民问题上都失败了”，并且“民主党在边境问题上也失败了”。

安德鲁斯补充道：“事实上，我支持宪法第二修正案。我认为我们需要安全的边境，我们需要遣返违法的非法移民，而且，是的，我希望降低中产阶级的税收。”

共和党将矛头指向跨性别议题，这在本次选举中起到了至关重要的作用，鲜有其他攻击手段能与之匹敌。

就在上周，特朗普在社交媒体上发布了一条针对安德鲁斯的反跨性别歧视言论，而安德鲁斯则发布了一则直接面向镜头的广告，为自己辩护。

但如果你眨一下眼，可能就错过了周日晚上的这场演出。

格雷厄姆两次提到这个问题，但都只是简短地提及。而且两次都是在回答的最后，辩论很快就进入下一个环节。其中一次甚至是在辩论的最后。

“但我们来谈谈我的其他几个担忧——她是否在用这些跨性别问题欺骗南卡罗来纳州的人民，”格雷厄姆在当晚的最后发言中说道。

辩论主持人迅速示意辩论到此结束，辩论就此结束。

这对安德鲁斯来说是一次胜利，因为她不必真正为这个问题作出解释，也不必解释她在 2022 年在社交媒体上发表的评论，她称一项禁止跨性别运动员参加公立学校女子运动队的州法律是“可耻的”。

安德鲁斯多次指出，格雷厄姆拒绝与民主党人和一些共和党人一起投票结束伊朗战争，并指出格雷厄姆有三次机会这样做。

格雷厄姆回应称，伊朗几乎拥有核武器——但这一说法并没有得到美国已知情报的支持。

但与一些共和党参议员候选人声称战争必须结束不同，她在为需要给特朗普更多时间辩护方面走得更远。她认为伊朗正遭受经济上的扼杀。

“他们仍然很危险，而且我们离结束战争也越来越近了，我们为什么要现在就停止呢？”格雷厄姆说。“我再次强调，我认为总统想结束战争。我知道他想。我们都希望战争结束。但我支持强大的军队。我相信以实力求和平。”

在辩论中，很少有人像特朗普那样引人注目；他的低支持率是南卡罗来纳州和其他一些传统共和党州今年秋季选情胶着的主要原因。但他并非辩论的焦点。

偶尔会有人提及特朗普的某些事迹，但他并非讨论的焦点。事实上，“特朗普”这个词只出现了寥寥几次。格雷厄姆也只是几次提到总统，赞扬他成立了人工智能工作组，并取消了对红色染料柴油的限制。

即使安德鲁斯认为格雷厄姆是内部人士的选择，但她实际上并没有提到提拔格雷厄姆的最重要的内部人士：特朗普。

而当谈到战争时，她通常不会把战争与总统联系起来。

对于这位民主党人来说，这或许并不令人意外。虽然特朗普在全国范围内普遍不受欢迎，但他在2024年仍然以18个百分点的优势赢得了这个州。