Brack: S.C. race for U.S. Senate seat is oddest in decades

The November race for a new U.S. senator to serve a six-year term for South Carolina is the oddest in the 72 years since Strom Thurmond became the first person ever to win a Senate seat as a write-in candidate.

This year, most agreed that Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston doctor and Democrat, had an uphill battle against four-term Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. Despite unpopularity with the far right wing of his party in South Carolina, he was close to President Trump and he had a long track record of delivering federal largesse. On June 9, he nabbed 57% of the vote against six candidates to get his party’s expected nod.

Then he died unexpectedly on July 11 of a tear to his heart after returning from a trip to Turkey and Ukraine. It stunned the nation and turned South Carolina’s U.S. Senate race on its head.

Two days later, Gov. Henry McMaster surprised many by appointing Graham’s sister Darline to fill the newly open spot in the Senate until the current term runs out in January. Many then weren’t sure whether she would run for the full term, but she did along with two congressmen, a former governor and others. In a special primary, she came out on top, followed by U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a York County congressman who originally went to Washington to “clean up” the swamp, but decided to try to come home and clean up a Columbia swamp by running for governor – even though his party has been in charge of that swamp for more than two decades.

In a few days, the GOP will have a nominee to run against Andrews and a handful of inconsequential third-party candidates.

New national polling shows Democrats, who need to flip four U.S. Senate seats and net four in the U.S. House to take control of Congress, have an 8-point advantage over Republicans in a generic congressional race.

That’s interesting only to the point that it indicates Democrats have a path nationally to take Congress. In South Carolina, it doesn’t mean as much – mostly because on Tuesday we’ll know who is running. It will be a human, not a generic candidate without a personality, views on policy and a track record that voters can study.

If Democrats nationally have an 8-point advantage, for South Carolina that means that Andrews may have an even shot. But more than likely, she’s still an underdog challenger in a state where Republicans dominate the legislature and hold all state constitutional offices.

If Lindsey Graham were on the ballot, the election would be called about one minute after polls closed in November. But now, it will be tougher – especially if Trump says something odd during a Friday visit to Myrtle Beach. If he gives less than full-fledged support of his pick for the seat, Darline Graham, all bets are off.

But no one should be surprised if he says something like “Norman is a good guy, too.” That’s essentially what he did in June with a last-minute co-endorsement of state Attorney General Alan Wilson in a GOP gubernatorial runoff with Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to seal her fate as the woman who almost won.

If Darline Graham wins Tuesday’s runoff, the battle for Senate will be between two women with little to no Washington experience. But Andrews can tout her professional credentials as a doctor who’s been in the trenches saving lives. Yet because voters don’t really know either of them, South Carolinians may just punch the “R” ballot because that’s what too many are used to.

If Norman wins, Andrews’ path to victory may be narrower because he’s a known entity in Washington and the GOP tribe will circle around him to try to keep the seat. But she will have a record to poke, which could be spicy.

Andrews’ overall path to flip the seat? Get a big turnout among South Carolina Black voters who are fed up with Trump’s racist, corrupt term in Washington. And hope GOP moderates and independents take a chance to show broad displeasure with the administration.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.