Senate Democrats’ PAC spends in South Carolina for first time

Senate Democrats are buying ads in South Carolina for the first time as polls show a close Senate contest in the deep-red state.

Senate Majority PAC (SMP), the Senate Democrats’ main political action committee in the midterms, will spend $750,000 on digital ads in the Palmetto State on the race between Sen. Darline Graham (R) and Annie Andrews (D).

“We’ll draw a sharp contrast between Andrews and Darline Graham, focusing on Graham raising health care costs and Rx drug prices,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French wrote in a post to the social platform X.

Recent polls of the race have shown Graham and Andrews in a close contest , with a New York Times/Siena University poll giving each candidate 48 percent support among likely voters.

South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.

SMP’s response comes after Republicans moved more money into South Carolina to support Graham, with GOP spending reaching more than $20 million.

Despite not having outside support up to this point, Andrews has raised more than $20 million herself compared to Graham’s $1.2 million, Federal Election Commission filings show.

One of Graham’s challenges has been her struggle to unite Republicans. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Graham’s opponent in the primary election, said he would keep his word and vote for her, but outright refused to campaign with Graham. He even said that his family would not be supporting her.

President Trump has made multiple trips to the state to boost his hand-picked candidate, who was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) following the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R).

Still, Democrats have been burned before in South Carolina, namely in 2020, when polls showed a close race, but Lindsey Graham went on to defeat Democrat Jaime Harrison by 10 points.

Nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a partner of The Hill, gives Graham a 65 percent chance to win a full term.