Midterms 2026: Graham set to debate Senate challengers in South Carolina

[0:00] Welcome back in to Live Now from Fox. For the first and only time during this cycle, there will be a debate in South Carolina for this Senate seat, as we'll see Darlene Graham and Dr. Annie Andrews on the stage at the Post and Courier out of South Carolina, saying these candidates will face one another head to head on the debate stage in Columbia. [0:22] And these two candidates, obviously, it could be a very tight race, Darlene Graham. This now three months to the day since the unexpected passing of Senator Lindsey Graham. So we're following it all closely here on Live Now from Fox. Let's bring into the conversation from Columbia, South Carolina, Associated Press' Meg Kennard. Meg, thank you so much for joining us here on Live Now from Fox. I know all eyes will be on the debate tonight because this is going to be a very heated debate, a very close race. What do you expect to hear? [0:51] Yeah, hey, it's great to be with y'all to talk about this. I mean, I think we're going to hear a lot of maybe contentious back and forth. You know, we're just over three weeks away from the general election. And in South Carolina, there's been so much attention on this Senate race. Obviously, the death of Lindsey Graham earlier this year threw the Republican primary into a tailspin because there had to be another Republican primary since he was on that ballot. [1:14] But now with his sister, Darlene Graham, facing off with Annie Andrews, who's never held office either, but she has run before here in South Carolina, Democrats are really hoping that this will be an opportunity for them to pick up a Senate seat, something that hasn't happened for their party here in South Carolina in decades. [1:32] And since we are in that close timeframe before the election, the attacks have gotten quite heated, as has the anticipation on both sides, wanting to either hang on to the seat for Republicans or flip it for Democrats. [1:46] South Carolina is traditionally, at least in recent decades, a strong Republican state in terms of statewide elections. That Lindsey Graham race, the last one we covered in 2020 was the blockbuster spend-a-thon between Lindsey Graham and Democrat Jamie Harrison in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And it was still a 10-point win for Lindsey Graham. [2:07] So that's the context in terms of the times that this seat has been available. But this year is quite unprecedented, clearly with Lindsey Graham's death and now his sister trying to fill his shoes long-term. [2:18] So I think we will hear a lot of vitriol, to be quite frank, from these candidates. They've been facing off on social media and through surrogates for quite some time. And now that it is crunch time, I think that's what we're going to get tonight. [2:31] Yeah, it's going to be heated. And really, the introduction has been swift for Darlene Graham, really the rise to prominence. She had to kind of be appointed in this role and then now winning through the Republican primary. [2:43] And she was on the debate stage during that Republican primary. And she made kind of a gaffe when asked about national security, about foreign policy. Did she study up about that? Are we expecting her to have a better, a more prepared response this time about that? [2:58] I would certainly think that there will have been some preparation. There has been a lot of time between, at least politically speaking, between that runoff debate and now. [3:09] And given all of the attention that was placed on Darlene Graham for saying that she wasn't really up on national security and that that wasn't her thing, I would anticipate there's been some preparation in that department, particularly heading into tonight. [3:23] But what's interesting, I think, when I think about having covered that debate, as well as the length of this campaign, which hasn't been nearly as long as many, but particularly on the Republican side, Darlene Graham has tied herself very closely to President Donald Trump, whose approval has been going down. [3:40] And so there is a question writ large, not just here in South Carolina, but across the country, how closely Republican candidates on the ballot in these midterms want to be linked with him. [3:50] There's been reporting that some have asked him not to come campaign with them. [3:54] We do anticipate that we will see President Trump back here in South Carolina to campaign with Darlene Graham before November 3rd. [4:00] But it is, it's just, it's, I think it's going to be something to watch for, given that overall tenor, to see how closely she still continues to say, I'm with President Trump on that issue. [4:12] I support his entire agenda, which is basically what she said during that primary and the primary runoff. [4:17] A general election is clearly different. [4:19] And with this being the major opportunity for her to really draw those lines of distinction with Annie Andrews, who clearly, as a Democrat running statewide in South Carolina, may have some ground to make up, that will be something that we're watching for, really, just to see if that's the strong advocation for President Trump and his priorities, or if there is the thinking that she would need to try to reach out to any of those voters who may be more toward the middle. [4:43] And you mentioned just they're trying to tie Trump and Darlene Graham, the strategy from Dr. Annie Andrews, because we saw on social media President Trump using an anti-transgender slur. [4:55] You said it's going to be vitriol tonight, potentially could be ugly. [4:59] Are we expecting Dr. Annie Andrews to address that comment and maybe speak directly to the President tonight? [5:06] I would be surprised if it doesn't come up in some form, and I would imagine it does come from Annie Andrews herself. [5:11] Clearly, the whole issue of her and how it relates to children and any issues of transgender, that has been one of the big things that has come up in the past couple of weeks and with President Donald Trump weighing in on social media to talk about her directly and using some defamatory language. [5:29] I think that's something that she will definitely want to be addressing. [5:32] It's also worth noting, though, that we did see in the wake of that, Annie Andrews herself going direct to camera to talk about issues directly in line with that and to really explain her position. [5:45] That's not, it's not something that we have seen her really take on so much. [5:49] But at least from having covered campaigns here in South Carolina and having covered her as a candidate before when she ran against Nancy Mace in the Charleston area for the House, I think that that is something that is different this time to really see that point of contention being raised among detractors, among conservatives, among people who don't like her candidacy. [6:08] And for Annie Andrews to say, this is actually how I feel about that. [6:13] I want to be super direct. [6:14] And we'll see how it lands. [6:15] Obviously, I don't know how much of that has really gotten with voters who may have had that as a sticking point. [6:21] Maybe that was the reason why they weren't feeling that they could support her. [6:24] I'm not really sure. [6:25] But for her to take that tack to address it was something a bit different. [6:30] And I think it'll come up tonight in some way or another. [6:32] Yeah, we'll eventually see it. [6:33] I do want to ask, because we've seen President Trump get out and vouch for candidates. [6:38] We saw that during the primary, President Trump was down in South Carolina in Myrtle Beach. [6:42] Earlier this week, we saw Attorney General Todd Blanche. [6:44] He traveled to South Carolina to tout the representative, Russell Frye, and also Darlene Graham. [6:50] And we've seen plenty members of Trump's administration on the campaign trail. [6:54] Are there any occasions that President Trump will be back in South Carolina during this final stretch and also other kind of surrogates for the Trump administration in South Carolina? [7:05] We do anticipate that we'll be seeing him again. [7:07] He has said that he wants to come back. [7:09] And even as early as the runoff, when he was here before with Darlene Graham, he indicated that he did plan to be here to stump for her in the future. [7:17] Senate Majority Leader John Thune was in the state last week as well, stumping with Graham. [7:21] We haven't seen him do a lot of that necessarily. [7:24] And so he, as well as Senator Tim Scott, our other South Carolina senator, but also the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican Party's campaign arm in the Senate, we've seen him advocating for Darlene Graham and appearing with her as well. [7:39] So I think that we will continue to see more of that. [7:42] I'm on the watch for other members of Senate leadership or just maybe some other popular senators who might not necessarily have their own re-elects to contend with this November since they're in a staggered electoral schedule. [7:53] It would be interesting to see if some of them may be popping in for her as well. [7:58] This is the home stretch. [8:00] And, you know, it's important to think about, you know, since Darlene Graham has been serving in this appointed role, she's been in the Senate basically since right after her brother died. [8:09] And during the Republican primary, that was a lot of her justification for not having been on the campaign trail, that she was serving in Washington, that she was doing the people's work. [8:17] And now with the Senate not being in and it being all campaign all the time, I think we are going to be seeing a lot more from Darlene Graham, but also maybe for those other Republican luminaries and big names, because regardless of the past history of Republicans having a lot of statewide victory when it comes to campaigns here, this, I think this race, it's fair to say, I think it will be tighter than we had seen for some of those with Lindsey Graham. [8:44] There is still the option for Republican voters or voters who want to vote Republican in South Carolina to vote straight ticket. [8:51] And I think that the party has been a big advocate for that in terms of it elevating maybe some candidates who might have been in closer races. [8:58] If someone just presses the button for all Republicans on their ballot, then that could boost someone who may have been more on the fence kind of thinking about the Senate race. [9:06] But I think that it will be a tighter race than we're accustomed to seeing in Senate races. [9:10] And that's something that Republicans here really want to keep that margin as high as possible to then continue making their case for South Carolina being a strong Republican state statewide. [9:21] All right, Meg, my last question before I let you go, because you brought it up and this might be a reason why it's so close is the fundraising aspect of it all. [9:29] You noted Lindsey Graham's race against Jamie Harrison back in 2020. [9:33] We do know there are some issues with her not taking over kind of the war chest Darlene Graham did. [9:38] How much is it tonight not only about getting her message out, but drumming up enthusiasm to fundraise tonight as well for Graham? [9:46] It is absolutely about that. [9:48] And that's something that Democrats across the country, but in some races here in South Carolina, are arguing that they have the enthusiasm on their side at this point. [9:56] Clearly, they're the party trying to regain power in Washington. [9:59] So there's an optimism that is not the case necessarily when you are the party trying to hold on to that power. [10:07] But fundraising is an issue. [10:09] And with the NRSC and the pro Lindsey Graham, now pro Darlene Graham Super PAC doing a lot of the spending, there have been plenty of other third-party groups as well. [10:20] That has been somewhat of a struggle for her to maintain her message online. [10:24] I mean, you know, back in 2020, there was so much money on both sides. [10:28] And I think everyone just got inundated on television and social media and YouTube and everywhere else. [10:33] And there's a lot of ads out here now, but it seems that I've seen more, at least in my feeds, that pop up from Annie Andrews and from groups supporting her. [10:42] So Darlene Graham has some ground to make up. [10:44] All right. [10:44] It'll be interesting tonight. [10:45] I'll let you get inside there in Columbia. [10:47] Meg Kennard, thank you again for joining us. [10:49] A very important race in South Carolina. [10:52] Anytime. [10:52] Thank you. [10:53] All right. [10:53] Thank you so much. [10:54] All right. [10:54] Great conversation with one of the best there covering all of these so very important races, including in the Palmetto State. [10:59] So it's Darlene Graham on the stage tonight, Dr. Annie Andrews. [11:03] And we expect potentially a heated debate. [11:06] This is the one and only time they will be on the stage speaking to voters in the Palmetto State. [11:11] And as you heard from Meg, this also might set the stage for President Trump to make yet another trip down there, maybe Myrtle Beach, maybe Columbia. [11:20] He usually has picked different locations in some of these other states. [11:23] So we'll see if and when he goes there over the next three weeks.