By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau | Perhaps heeding the currently fashionable political advice to meet people where they are, U.S. Sen. Darline Graham uncorked a little NSFW (not-safe-for-work) language for the MAGA faithful at a Thursday campaign rally with President Donald Trump in Rock Hill.
Hollywood socialists? They can “kiss my ass,” Graham told the crowd. And her Democratic opponent Annie Andrews, the once-longshot challenger who’s now tied with Graham in most election-eve polls? Well, “she’s just plain old bat shit crazy,” the former head of the State Commission for the Blind pronounced.
To which Andrews, who’s made affordability the cornerstone of her campaign, replied in a social media post: “Is it bat shit to want cheaper gas and groceries?”
The rally marked Trump’s second trip to the Palmetto State in support of Graham in the past nine days, a noteworthy commitment of presidential time in a normally ruby-red state like S.C. But despite significant GOP grassroots opposition, Trump has strongly backed Graham’s Senate bid since her July appointment to serve out the remaining months of her late brother Lindsey Graham’s term.
“I got you into this thing, Darline,” Trump said during Thursday’s rally. “Your brother’s looking down, he’s going to be Tuesday night. Let’s make Lindsey really happy and proud.”
Unlike Trump’s Oct. 21 rally in Clemson, which produced multiple police reports, there were no reports of violence Thursday. But in a further sign of the seemingly snakebit Graham campaign’s difficulties, the viral clip coming out of the event wasn’t presidential praise. Instead, it was a live Fox News rally interview with a man described as a Trump supporter.
“Tom, why are you here this morning?” the Fox correspondent asked.
“Well, in the late ’70s, I was a little too young to get involved and go to South America for the Jonestown massacre, but this is as close as I’ll ever get,” Tom said. “Nothing like seeing a cult right up front, man.”
“Alright, so maybe this is not a Trump supporter,” the correspondent observed, before quickly throwing back to the studio.
Nevertheless, and despite unmistakable Republican nerves about the race heading into Tuesday, old S.C. GOP hands like Charleston strategist Joel Sawyer are warning Republicans and Democrats alike not to overread the tea leaves.
“Every two years, we hear ‘But this time is different’ from S.C. Dems,” Sawyer wrote this week on X. “And it never is.”
- Senate polling finds Graham, Andrews neck-and-neck heading into election day
- Can Graham keep S.C.’s Senate seat red?
- Bipartisan former S.C. governors endorse Andrews for Senate
- Five issues dividing Graham and Andrews in S.C. Senate race
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