ROCK HILL — Acknowledging his “raspy voice” after dozens of recent rallies, President Donald Trump told thousands of supporters in South Carolina he’s powering through on a quest to beat the midterm odds.
Trump once again asked rallygoers to “pretend that I’m on the ballot,” because when he is, “more people show up” to vote. But in nonpresidential elections, historically — in 20 of the last 22 midterms — the party of the president loses seats. He’s determined to make 2026 another outlier.
“It doesn’t make sense. Even if you’re a great president, it doesn’t matter,” Trump told the crowd inside the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center. “The one thing I can say is that no president has ever worked so hard to win a midterm.
“We are all working hard. Every one of us. Tim’s been following me around all over the place,” he said, referring to South Carolina’s senior U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the committee dedicated to electing Republicans to the upper chamber, who was in the front row.
Trump talked for roughly 90 minutes. The event near Winthrop University marked his second visit to South Carolina in two weeks to bolster support for U.S. Sen. Darline Graham in the normally reliably red state.
“I had to come here too,” he said, recognizing it’s his third visit for Graham. The first was in August ahead of her win over U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in the special GOP runoff to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham on the ballot.
Appointed to fulfill the rest of his fourth term, Darline Graham joined the contest for the next term at Trump’s encouragement.
“I got you into this thing,” Trump said to her from the stage. “Your brother’s looking down. He’s gonna be Tuesday night. Let’s make Lindsey really happy and proud.”
Polls have shown Graham’s race with Democrat Annie Andrews growing increasingly tight. Some show a statistical tie.
Trump dismissed polls generally as “fake” and “phony,” asking the audience, “How many people in this room were ever polled? I mean, seriously, raise your hand because I’m curious.”
Yet he also told the crowd not to make assumptions that Republicans will win: “Every single person here has to get out and vote. … We’ve got to make sure everything works out.”
A key reason for unexpectedly tight contests in South Carolina and other red states is voter frustration with high prices and continued inflation.
Trump touted news earlier Thursday of 3.4% economic growth in the quarter ending Sept. 30, which surpassed economists’ expectations: “I’m pleased to report that the U.S. economy is booming,” he said to address voters’ top concern. While 3.4% isn’t the historic level he indicated, it does mark the best quarter in a year.
He recognized Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a South Carolina native, and rattled off the names of Republican nominees at the event.
The local congressman was notably absent.
Trump never said Norman’s name. But the rally was held in the 5th District congressman’s hometown.
In South Carolina’s U.S. Senate race specifically, GOP infighting is another reason for the potential toss-up status. Norman has said he’ll vote for Graham, since he swore to vote for the GOP nominee, but his entire family won’t. He’s openly criticized Trump for getting involved in the primary. And he refuses to help Graham. But Graham needs Norman’s backers in the county he won by almost 28 percentage points to come out and vote for her. York County was among the 12 counties Norman won in the runoff. He took the entire northwest corner around Clemson University, where Trump rallied last week.
GOP gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general since 2010, used part of his time on stage to again call for unity following the GOP’s extended primaries.
He likened primaries to “big family arguments.” Noting Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up, he said, “while we all have those family members that we don’t always like or we don’t always agree with, if we saw someone attacking them, attacking our family, we back them up.”
He acknowledged not being the primary choice of everyone in the audience either. Wilson defeated Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a runoff. Norman placed third in the gubernatorial primary.
“I’m here today to say ‘thank you.’ Now I’m asking you one other thing, I’m asking you to get Darline Graham’s back,” Wilson said, calling her “one of us.”
Trump likened her to “apple pie.”
Trump supporters who drove from other areas of the state for the rally included Dean Johnson.
The 66-year-old retired Sumter resident said he voted for Norman in the primary. But he had no problem backing Graham in this election. He’s already cast a ballot for her in early voting.
“Darline won fair and square,” said Johnson, attending his second Trump rally. “I just ask people to look at the bigger picture, and if you want positive things for our country to continue as they are, to come out and vote for Darline.”
Ann Ballentine, 85, of Chapin, said she came to Rock Hill to show support for both Trump and Graham.
She said she liked Graham’s brother and believes she will carry on his work.
“I hope she will do just as well as he did. I think she knows his philosophy, and she’s a conservative, and I am too,” Ballentine said.
Throughout the rally, Trump and the other Republicans on stage characterized Andrews as a radical liberal.
“Like they say out in the country, she’s just plain batshit crazy,” Graham said. “I will not allow the socialists and liberals to turn South Carolina blue. They can just kiss my ass.”
But Andrews describes herself as “public school mom” and a pediatrician who’s willing to criticize people in her party and policies she disagrees with.
“I don’t know what’s so radical about thinking every county in South Carolina should have an OB-GYN or thinking that hardworking South Carolina families shouldn’t have to worry about putting food on the table, paying for their prescription drugs, and that if you’re sick in South Carolina, that you should be able to afford to see a doctor and be able to find a doctor in your community,” she told reporters last week when asked to respond to Trump’s accusations. “I don’t know what’s so radical about all that.”
Wilson said a vote for Andrews could give Democrats control of the Senate and make Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York the majority leader again. Graham said Andrews’ first vote in the Senate would be to make Schumer majority leader.
But asked directly about Schumer after the event, Andrews said he would not get her vote. The party needs a new leader, she told Fox News anchor Brett Baier during a TV interview.
York County Democrats organized events before and after Trump’s visit.
On Wednesday night, Andrews rallied in Rock Hill. Hours after the Trump event, Rep. Jermaine Johnson, the Democratic nominee for governor, rallied alongside Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in an auditorium less than 2 miles from Trump’s event.
Early voting runs through Saturday, and Election Day is on Tuesday.
Katharine Wilson writes about politics for the SC Daily Gazette. Before joining the publication, she wrote about local and state politics for The Baltimore Sun.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
RELATED OPINION:
Brack: Senate race may come down to desperate vs. competent
By Andy Brack
Think back a year in South Carolina politics. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham had millions of dollars in the bank and friends in very high places. On paper and in practice, he was cruising toward another six-year term. Any Democratic challenger was more of a speedbump than anything.
At the same time, Charleston-area Dr. Annie Andrews thought she could win the Senate seat and become the first woman doctor in the upper chamber. She had firmness of conviction and the hard-charging drive to win. But few in ruby-red South Carolina gave her much of a chance.
My, how the times have changed. Andrews is knocking on the door to win the Senate race. She would become the first Democrat elected to the Senate since Fritz Hollings stepped away from politics in 2005.
So what happened? First, Graham died suddenly in July. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nardone, his sister, to replace Graham. And she got the enthusiastic backing of President Donald Trump, which may not turn out to have the power it once had.
Then the new Sen. Graham, as she is now known, sputtered in a special GOP primary runoff, only to beat retiring U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, by a four-point margin. It didn’t help that Graham said foreign policy – one of her brother’s specialties – wasn’t much of “her thing” during a runoff debate, leading many to question her qualifications to be a senator.
Norman, fresh off a June defeat to be the party’s gubernatorial candidate, also had name recognition from spending millions as well as a base of Upstate support from the GOP right so frustrated with Lindsey Graham over the years that they didn’t want his sister in office.
In the two months since becoming the GOP’s candidate for the six-year term, Graham has done little campaigning, particularly in the Lowcountry where Andrews, who has been to all of the state’s 46 counties, lives. She’s also done little in the Senate to make a name for herself, other than being what many call Trump’s puppet. And she’s taken millions of dollars from outside groups, including those aligned with data centers, which are fuel for an increasingly unpopular issue in the Palmetto State.
Meanwhile, Andrews hasn’t backed down, almost making political guerrilla raids in the race by talking about the things people are talking about – data centers, health care accessibility and high prices for everything from gas, housing and electricity to beef and everyday groceries.
Andrews has so chipped away at Graham that a new poll by The New York Times showed the race as a toss-up, with both candidates at 48%. Even conservative Fox News this week changed the race from “leans Republican” to “toss-up.”
Andrews pulled off other political coups, knowingly and unknowingly. She got a strong endorsement from two former governors – the GOP’s David Beasley and the Democrats’ Jim Hodges – which surprised some. And in the last week, some in the GOP seem to be in open revolt, seemingly irritated that the national party and Trump are trying to tell them what to do – something that South Carolinians don’t like.
According to an Oct. 29 piece in The Washington Post, Norman questioned why Trump made two campaign stops this week in South Carolina to prop up Graham’s campaign.
“All the places we’re in trouble in the country, and he’s coming to Rock Hill, South Carolina,” Norman said. In the report, he also called Graham a “‘propped-up candidate’ and said Trump’s team is trying to ‘shore her up’ in what is usually a safe Republican seat.”
And former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford, who was one of 10 candidates in the special Republican primary for the seat, said in the same story that some Republicans resented Graham’s candidacy: “They don’t want to vote Democratic, but at the same time they’re concerned about competency and allegiance issues. They don’t like the idea of a puppet, somebody who will do as told by the president,” he told the Post.
And it certainly didn’t help this week when Graham resorted to name-calling, but saying Andrews was “batsh*t crazy” – particularly when she has seemed logical, calm and the opposite of crazy over the last year.
So on to Nov. where the race for U.S. Senate seems to be between desperate and competent.
And don’t be surprised if you’ll soon have a Dr. Sen. Andrews.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
