‘they’re Being Steamrolled’: Why South Carolina Is Sending A Democrat To The Senate

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — I covered nearly every contested statewide race this fall, but after last weekend I still hadn’t written about the shockingly close Senate campaign in South Carolina. So I flew here Monday afternoon to interview Annie Andrews and attend her final rally.

Her victory the next day would prove to be one of the stunners of the midterms. Here was a Democrat claiming the seat held by the late GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and before that Strom Thurmond — the first Democrat to win a Senate race here in this century. And, in a poignant twist, prevailing over Graham’s sister.

But how did she do it? What are the politics of this self-described “radical centrist?”

And who is this 45-year-old pediatrician? Well, she’s a former gun control activist and mother of three who came here in 2009 to work at the Medical University of South Carolina, the sort of transplant to this state who is, fittingly, redefining the political face of South Carolina and the South broadly.

After her election-eve rally at an event space in a gentrified part of Charleston — speaking of a changing state — I sat down with Andrews in an old train car where there was cake for her 10-year-old’s birthday. We talked about why she seemed to be on the verge of toppling Darline Graham, what it meant for the Democratic Party and when she knew victory might be real.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Obviously this race has become a lot more competitive, but it's a hard state for Democrats to win. As you travel the state, though, and talk to people, what were the issues that were the most galvanizing, or that really got you into a place where you could compete in this race? 

It's really what you hear everywhere, but it's the prices of gas and groceries, and here in South Carolina, closing rural hospitals — a health care system that is already pretty broken, on the brink of being way worse. And then really over the past, I don't know, half a year, the data center conversations come up more and more and more. So many of those companies are coming here.

I think it's a perfect example of putting corporations over communities or profits over people, and these rural parts of the state just feel taken advantage of. They already felt kind of left behind because they don't see the investment in their infrastructure or their public school system or any of that, and now they just feel like they're being steamrolled by these very wealthy, powerful corporations. And then, of course, in my case, Darline's totally bankrolled by them. I mean, that new data center industry PAC, she's their first candidate they're trying to get across the finish line.

Did President Trump wind up becoming more of a liability for her than an asset? 

I think that's a good question for Darline. I have no idea how she would answer that question. We don't talk about the president on the campaign because we talk about the issues, and it's not as important to talk about whose fault it is as it is to talk about what the solution is going forward.

He wound up certainly becoming more of an asset for you. That's for sure. Not necessarily because of him, but because of the issue set. You mentioned gas and prices. Tariffs and Iran are the biggest driver of those two things, right? So you're benefiting from that. But you’ve got to walk a fine line because you don't want to scare away folks who are otherwise gettable voters by doing some sort of fire and brimstone against the president. They probably voted for him three times, right?

And that's not what it's about. It's about the problems we have today in South Carolina and how we're going to start to fix them come the new year.

And the problems are plentiful. And you know, people here are very pragmatic. They don't want to hear all this looking in the rearview mirror, blame game kind of thing. They want to hear: What are you going to do if you fix these problems? I respect the voters here for that. And I've seen more and more independents or self-described Republicans who are coming to my events.

What's that about? 

They just told me, “You know, I wanted Ralph Norman to win the primary. I'm a Ralph Norman supporter, but I'm here and I'm supporting you, and I'm going to vote for you.”

Yeah, the Norman family has become your buddies. 

Yeah, Warren [Rep. Ralph Norman’s son] and I are friends.

How did that happen? 

He actually reached out to me, and then we met and had a conversation, him and his wife and he wanted to, I think, see where I really stood on the issues. Of course, there's a lot of lies circulating.

You told him you weren't some scary lefty?

Right. And then, it's a matter of yeah, there's a lot we don't agree on, but we can agree that an empty suit in this seat, which is what Darline will be, is not going to be good for South Carolina.

That's a big driver of this, right? People across the ideological spectrum, but who were otherwise pretty sophisticated political actors, saying, "Come on, that's just not who we want as a U.S. senator." How damaging do you think for the general election was that answer she gave in her primary debate about not knowing much about national security? 

Incredibly damaging, because people didn't even know about her. Some people knew that Lindsey had a sister because she would be in his ads every six years. People didn't even really know about her, and then the first thing they learn about her is that.

And she hasn't made an affirmative case for herself. She's not campaigning. She's not talking to voters. You know, I was on Bret Baier last week, and she won't go on that show. She won't talk to the most conservative network.

So she's ducking the media. She only agreed to the one debate. We agreed to four. She's going to safe spaces to campaign.

Do you think she even wants the job? Did you see her comments to The Wall Street Journal the other day, to my friend Josh Dawsey?

About choking Lindsey and being miserable?

But also about how this is brutal. 

I read that she said she likes the job, she doesn't like the campaign

But I'm not sure she wants the job. 

I'm not either.

But the campaign is the part where you actually talk to the people. Yes, that's the more important skill set you need if you're going to be good at the job. It very much concerns me that she just wants the power, but she's not willing to actually fight for South Carolina. And we saw it on the Russia sanctions bill, and Trump totally undermined it. She wouldn't stand up to Trump for this thing that was her brother's legacy. She won't stand up for that. She's never going to stand up for us.

So, how do you describe your politics? 

I mean, very pragmatic, radically centrist. I'm a doctor, so I don't walk into a room of a sick child and say, "Oh, well, we don't have a perfect treatment for this, so I'm just going to move on to the next problem." You just do everything hour by hour in the hospital to make the kid a little bit better, a little bit better. So, my job is to represent the views of South Carolinians to move the ball down the field a little bit, not let perfect be the enemy of the good.

It's a center to center-right state, obviously. Are there issues where you differ from your national party? 

Yeah, I mean, they've been terrible on the border. We need a secure border to be a secure nation. I support, Trump's “no tax on tips” and “no tax on Social Security.” I wish we had broad support within my party for term limits, banning members of Congress from trading stock, all these like self-enrichment, Washington corruption things that I'm embarrassed that our party doesn't fully support. We need to just get out of this cycle of self-enrichment. This is public service, and we need people like me who have a career already, and so they're not just making votes based on their own political calculation and political expediency and survival. They're doing what's in the best interest.

But you support abortion rights. You support some restrictions on guns too, right? 

Yeah, universal background checks, which the vast majority of Americans and South Carolinians support, which do not infringe on the Second Amendment.

What would it tell us if somebody won a Senate seat in South Carolina who was for abortion rights and even some modest gun control? That's a new day here, right? 

Yeah, I mean, I think things are changing. Politics in Washington, D.C., are continuing to fail regular people in South Carolina, and so they're sick of it.

You mentioned the end of your rally and it was really striking to me about what politics has become — this incredibly divisive, negative culture. Do you feel like your candidacy, in some ways, is a rebuke of that? 

Yes, you know we see the opposite from my opponent. She said, “You can kiss my ass.”

Yeah, what was that all about? 

One of my kids, I don't even remember which one, I overheard them saying "kiss my ass" the other day.

Oh no! 

And they literally looked at me and said, "Well, Darline said it." So where are we if that's the dialogue that we're having in the race for a U.S. Senate seat?

What do you think your success would say about the state? 

That we're ready to put South Carolina first, and that we understand that the insider Washington, D.C., thing is not working for us here in South Carolina, and we're ready to move beyond party politics and put someone in a seat who's actually going to do the hard work.

Is there someone who you'd emulate in your party? 

No, I mean, I just don't come from that world. A lot of doctors that I look up to. I don't really have a lot of politicians that I look up to.

Which doctors?

A couple that were standing on that stage with me tonight. Ashley Hank is a trauma surgeon here who started our hospital violence intervention program at MUSC.

And you moved here for MUSC, right? 

Yeah.
My sister-in-law used to work there. It's a great institution and its Children's Hospital is amazing, and we're so fortunate to have that in our backyard.

And you would be one of the first Democratic doctors, along with a guy named Abdul El-Sayed, potentially.

I’d be the first ever pediatrician in the U.S. Senate, which I think it's about time.

What do you think your success would say about your party right now? 

I think what's happening across the country is people like me who weren't in high school saying “I want to be a politician,” but who through their lived experience — whether it's personal or professional, in my case mostly professional — understand that if you want to solve these problems, you just have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself.

I've seen candidates from all different backgrounds, not just scientific or health care backgrounds, stepping up to run. That's what representative government is meant to be. And I think that's going to be the big statement. We didn't just send a bunch of lawyers to the Senate. We sent a bunch of people who care deeply about their communities, who want to fight for their states or their districts.

Well, you ran for the House a couple years ago, right? What inspired you to get involved in the first place in politics? 

It was really — you know, tonight's my daughter's 10th birthday, which means she was born six days before the 2016 presidential election. Experiencing that election as a mother of a brand new baby girl was eye opening for me, and then just the culmination of my experiences, hospital room to hospital room, and really watching how the system was failing. I started advocating. I didn't jump right into politics. I started going to the state house, developing relationships with some lawmakers up there, saying, “Here's an idea, and here's an evidence-based solution to this problem I see every day at the Children's Hospital.” And then, in one ear out the other, over their heads. If it wasn't in line with their party platform, it was “No, thank you, we're not interested.” And then I quickly understood that politics really was the path to most efficiently solve these problems.

But when did the national party, Sen. Chuck Schumer, start taking this very seriously? It must have been after Labor Day. It took a while, right? 

It’s been a series of things. I mean, the most recent poll from The New York Times [showing the race tied at 48], like, oh, it's real. But we thought it was real for a long time. We've been building this amazing coalition of support for 18 months now.

But you could have used some more money over the summer, though, too, right? 

We're where we are today, and I feel really good about our position and the path that it took us to get here.

What was the first time that you heard from Sen. Schumer? You remember? 

No. I mean, it's relatively recent.

Like since Labor Day? 

Probably.

Here's why I ask: I think this race could be the biggest story of tomorrow night. I think nobody's going to be surprised anymore if James Talarico wins. Nobody's going to be surprised if Adam Hamilton wins in Kansas. I think there's two races left in America that would really be a huge story. One is this, and the other is the governor's race in Florida. But obviously, what matters here is the Senate math, and it would get Democrats closer to a Fetterman-proof majority, as they say. If you come up short, though, it may be because the party wasn't here soon enough. 

I feel like we have the resources to compete. We've outraised and outspent my opponent, so I don't know that every candidate wants more resources, but I don't think that's going to be the reason we win or lose tomorrow.

We built this movement $30 at a time, and everybody always wants more support. But I'm proud of how we built it on our own, and we built it without national party politics getting involved, so it could be a really authentic South Carolina-first campaign. I'm happy to be the underdog. I'm happy for people to underestimate me, and here we are now on the cusp of potentially winning this thing.

When did you realize that it was possible you were going to win? 

I mean, I thought I was going to win in 2022 [for the House] because I'm just a glass-half-full kind of person.

But there had to have been a moment this year where you were like, “Holy shit, this is actually doing it.” 

I think it was the most recent poll [in The New York Times] that I was like, “OK, it's not just me feeling hopeful and me going on the vibes of our events. It's the serious people.”

There's data. 

Yeah, there's data. I mean, I'm an evidence-based doctor, so the data helps me.