Andrews, Graham trade blows in U.S. Senate debate

MORNING HEADLINES | South Carolina’s U.S. Senate candidates traded blows in the race’s one and only debate Sunday night, with Democratic nominee Annie Andrews calling appointed incumbent GOP Sen. Darline Graham as “unserious and unqualified.” Meanwhile, Graham claimed Andrews was “pretending to be someone she’s not.”

Also on stage was Libertarian candidate Kasie Whitener, who was largely ignored as the two major party candidates focused their fire on each other.

Calling Graham “the White House’s ambassador to South Carolina,” Andrews hammered the incumbent for her close ties to Washington Republicans, whose poll numbers have cratered in recent months amid high gas and grocery prices, deep federal health care cuts and an unpopular war in Iran. Still, Andrews was careful not to name President Trump, who carried the state by 17 points just two years ago.

“My opponent is going to stand up here and call me a socialist because that’s what her script says, and also because she doesn’t want to talk to you about your high gas prices, grocery prices or your closing rural hospitals,” said Andrews, who’s tried to position herself as a moderate in the race.

But Graham pushed back hard on Andrews’ efforts to distance herself from the left wing of the Democratic Party, saying the Lowcountry pediatrician wouldn’t “stand up to socialist Democrats” who “cheered in the streets of New York” when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“You are deceiving the people of South Carolina,” Graham said. “You have flip-flopped on everything. There’s so many social media posts out there to prove different. Shame on you.”

The candidates also traded barbs over Graham’s husband’s business ties to China, Andrews’ once-outspoken support for transgender rights, and the rapid proliferation of data centers, which Andrews said she would slow with a national moratorium and Graham would not.

Voters go to the polls on Nov. 3.

Help the City Paper stay local, free, independent

Local. Free. Independent. Those three words represent the foundation on which the stories told by the Charleston City Paper are built. Since 1997, the Charleston City Paper has provided the kind of information that people in Charleston and across South Carolina rely on. Since 2020, the newspaper has won more than 200 state and national awards for news and advertising excellence making it the top weekly newspaper in South Carolina.

Please consider giving today to allow the newspaper to continue to stay #CharlestonStrong.

In recent headlines

CP OPINION: Brack: The president needs help. “When conservative readers don’t like something written about President Donald Trump and what he’s doing to our American democracy, it’s easy to send off the MAGA playbook zinger that the writer has “Trump Derangement Syndrome. Perhaps, but another malady is really at work – Deranged Trump Syndrome.”

CP NEWS: S.C. weighs legal sports gambling as reality outruns law. If asked, an attorney would likely tell you that sports gambling remains illegal under South Carolina law. And in a sense, that’s true. But so is the reply that same attorney would hear from Palmetto State residents who pull up gambling apps on their phones every day: “Wanna bet?”

2026: Democrats take on Republicans in every S.C. House district. Democrats are challenging every seat for the first time in decades, hoping to chip away at the GOP’s supermajority while building a stronger presence in districts they’re unlikely to win.

Pritzker tells Democrats to toughen up during South Carolina visit

North Charleston studies railroad crossing fixes ahead of LRT launch. Officials are asking for public input on potential solutions to prevent train-related delays along the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit route near Rivers and Durant avenues.

New IAAM exhibit tells the stories behind historic photos of enslaved people. Opening Oct. 16, the International African American Museum’s “They Lived” exhibit puts names, identities and humanity at the center of seven 1850 photographs originally taken to support racist theories.

STATEWIDE: Thousands were without power as Isaias rolled through state. Nearly 15,000 South Carolinians saw power outages this weekend, as S.C. felt the effects of the storm.

CALENDAR: How to find cool things to do around town

Our online events calendar has scores of events around the Lowcountry every day, making it the most detailed calendar of what’s happening in the area. Just click on “Events” above at right under the black toolbar. You’ll be amazed at what you find.