Trump heads to South Carolina to boost Senator Darline Graham in race

Race between sibling of former Senator Lindsey Graham, Democrat Annie Andrews has tightened in deep-red state.

Republican US Senator Darline Graham is next to Democratic candidate Annie Andrews during a debate in Columbia, South Carolina in October [Sam Wolfe/Reuters]

United States President Donald Trump is set to travel to South Carolina to boost the campaign of Darline Graham , the sister of his close ally, the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

The visit on Wednesday, which will include a rally alongside Graham, comes as the Senate race in deep-red South Carolina has grown uncomfortably close for Republicans.

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Lindsey Graham, long one of the most hawkish members of the Senate who was an outspoken supporter of the US-Israel war on Iran, had been expected to sail to victory in the November 3 vote. But his unexpected death in July upended the race.

South Carolina’s governor tapped Darline Graham to finish her brother’s term. Trump then made the surprise move of endorsing Graham in a new Republican primary, helping her to claim the party’s nomination. The president said the endorsement was “in honour of her brother”.

In a video message last week, Trump again said Graham had his unconditional support.

“I’m asking everyone in South Carolina to get out and vote for a wonderful person, a great woman … a woman that Lindsey Graham said is the greatest person he’s ever met,” Trump said.

Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a medical doctor and paediatrician, has seized on Graham’s inexperience and her unorthodox route to the Republican nomination.

Speaking to a local Fox News affiliate before Trump’s rally in Pendleton, South Carolina, Andrews pointed to Graham’s lacklustre debate performance, including one instance where she said she was “not that informed on national security”.

“My opponent needs the highest level of federal government politicians to speak for her. On the debate stage, it was really clear,” Andrews said.

Graham, meanwhile, has called Andrews “the most radical liberal that’s ever run for state office in South Carolina”.

Polls have shown Graham leading by about 2.7 percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average. Trump carried the state by 18 percentage points in 2024.

Trump’s visit comes after the president issued an executive order waiving most sanctions and tariffs on Russia, established by a law named after Lindsey Graham and passed with bipartisan support in 2026.

The move prompted a tempered rebuke from Darline Graham.

“Personally, I would choose to put the ⁠pressure on Russia to end the war and get gas prices down,” she told The Associated Press news agency on Saturday.

“I don’t trust Putin, and I don’t trust Russia,” she said.

The executive order on sanctions has been part of a wider Trump administration shift in its approach to ending the war with Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2024.

Trump and his allies have heaped pressure on Ukraine, framing its leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the main impediment to peace. In turn, Washington has offered several concessions to Russia, including a deal to buy Russian diesel.

Lindsey Graham had been a staunch supporter of Ukraine. His death came shortly after he returned from his 10th visit to the country since the war began.

The tightening race in South Carolina underscores the harsh political reality for Republicans heading into the final stretch of the midterms.

Trump has sought to use his political clout to bring party loyalists out to vote, campaigning in strongholds across the country. But the president heads into the vote with the lowest approval ratings of his career, with voters expressing dismay about affordability and the knock-on effects of the US-Israel war with Iran.

Beyond South Carolina, other one-time Republican strongholds have shown signs of shifting towards Democrats.

That includes Kansas, where polls suggest Republican Ashley Hinson is effectively tied with Democrat Joshua Turek. The state, where farmers have been particularly hard hit by rising prices on fuel and equipment, has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1939.

Trump also broke from the Republican establishment to endorse Attorney General Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn in the Texas primary. Polling averages show Paxton, whose career has been marred by a procession of scandals, trailing behind Democratic challenger Talarico by 1.7 percentage points. The race is widely considered a toss-up.

A Republican has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994.

在共和党传统票仓州，前参议员林赛·格雷厄姆的妹妹与民主党候选人安妮·安德鲁斯之间的选情日趋胶着。

10 月，美国共和党参议员达琳·格雷厄姆 (Darline Graham) 与民主党候选人安妮·安德鲁斯 (Annie Andrews) 在南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚市的一场辩论中并肩而立。[萨姆·沃尔夫/路透社]

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普将前往南卡罗来纳州，为他的亲密盟友、已故参议员林赛·格雷厄姆的妹妹达琳·格雷厄姆的竞选活动助选。

周三的访问将包括与格雷厄姆一起参加集会，此时共和党在深红州南卡罗来纳州的参议院竞选形势变得异常胶着。

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林赛·格雷厄姆长期以来都是参议院中最鹰派的成员之一，他曾公开支持美国和以色列对伊朗发动的战争，人们原本预期他会在11月3日的投票中轻松获胜。但他在7月份的意外去世彻底改变了选情。

南卡罗来纳州州长任命达琳·格雷厄姆接替她哥哥完成剩余任期。随后，特朗普出人意料地宣布支持格雷厄姆参加新的共和党初选，帮助她最终获得党内提名。总统表示，此举是为了“纪念她的哥哥”。

上周，特朗普在一段视频讲话中再次表示，他将无条件支持格雷厄姆。

“我呼吁南卡罗来纳州的每一个人都出来投票，支持一位优秀的人，一位伟大的女性……林赛·格雷厄姆称她是他见过的最伟大的人，”特朗普说。

民主党挑战者安妮·安德鲁斯是一位医学博士兼儿科医生，她抓住格雷厄姆缺乏经验以及她获得共和党提名的非正统途径大做文章。

在特朗普于南卡罗来纳州彭德尔顿举行集会之前，安德鲁斯在接受当地福克斯新闻附属电视台采访时指出，格雷厄姆在辩论中的表现平平，其中有一次她表示自己“对国家安全不太了解”。

“我的对手需要联邦政府最高级别的政要为她说话。在辩论台上，这一点非常清楚，”安德鲁斯说。

与此同时，格雷厄姆称安德鲁斯是“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”。

根据Real Clear Politics的平均民调数据，格雷厄姆领先约2.7个百分点。特朗普在2024年大选中以18个百分点的优势赢得了该州。

特朗普此次访问之前，总统发布了一项行政命令，豁免了对俄罗斯的大部分制裁和关税。这些制裁和关税是根据以林赛·格雷厄姆命名的法律制定的，该法律于 2026 年获得两党支持通过。

此举引发了达琳·格雷厄姆的温和批评。

“就我个人而言，我会选择向俄罗斯施压，要求其结束战争并降低天然气价格，”她周六告诉美联社。

“我不信任普京，我也不信任俄罗斯，”她说。

这项制裁行政命令是特朗普政府在结束与乌克兰的战争问题上采取的更广泛策略转变的一部分，这场战争始于俄罗斯在 2024 年 2 月的入侵。

特朗普及其盟友对乌克兰施加了巨大压力，将乌克兰总统泽连斯基描绘成和平的主要障碍。作为回应，华盛顿向俄罗斯做出了一些让步，包括购买俄罗斯柴油的协议。

林赛·格雷厄姆一直是乌克兰的坚定支持者。在他结束自战争爆发以来第十次乌克兰之行后不久，他就去世了。

南卡罗来纳州选情日趋胶着，凸显了共和党人在中期选举最后阶段面临的严峻政治现实。

特朗普试图利用其政治影响力动员党内忠实支持者投票，并在全国各地的票仓展开竞选活动。但总统的支持率却跌至其政治生涯的最低点，选民们对生活成本以及美以战争和伊朗战争的连锁反应感到不满。

除了南卡罗来纳州之外，其他一些曾经的共和党堡垒也出现了向民主党倾斜的迹象。

这其中包括堪萨斯州，民调显示共和党候选人阿什利·辛森与民主党候选人约书亚·图雷克的支持率不相上下。该州农民受燃油和设备价格上涨的冲击尤为严重，自1939年以来，该州就再也没有选出过民主党参议员。

在德克萨斯州初选中，特朗普也打破了共和党建制派的立场，转而支持州检察长肯·帕克斯顿，而非参议员约翰·科宁。民调平均数据显示，帕克斯顿的职业生涯因一系列丑闻而蒙上阴影，目前他落后于民主党挑战者塔拉里科1.7个百分点。这场选举普遍被认为胜负难料。

自 1994 年以来，共和党人就再也没有在德克萨斯州赢得过全州范围的选举。