Lindsey Graham's challenger says Democrats can't give up on red states [View all]

Lindsey Graham’s challenger says Democrats can’t give up on red states
Annie Andrews, a pediatrician challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham, told Salon "it's always worth" challenging the GOP

By Russell Payne
Staff Reporter
Published September 17, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Achallenger to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has a message for national Democrats, telling Salon that “it’s always worth the fight,” even in the face of long odds — and that Democrats, in the age of social media, need to pay attention when a candidate gains traction without the help of money.

Annie Andrews is a pediatrician and Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina, a state Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024. Despite this, Andrews said that the party, if it wants to be competitive in the Senate, will need to learn how to compete in states currently dominated by Republicans.

“If we as a party ever want to expand the map, we have to support candidates who enter races where the path to victory is narrow and uphill, like this race in South Carolina. I think one of the things national Democrats need to do is to follow the enthusiasm,” Andrews said. “I think national Democrats could learn from that by observing which candidates in this cycle are breaking through the noise and start to encourage more non-traditional candidates like myself to step up and run and support them when they do.”

Andrews’s message comes at a point when leaders in the party are struggling with their relationship with populist upstarts. Populists on the party’s progressive flank, like Graham Platner, an oyster farmer running for Senate in Maine, and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the party’s nominee in the New York City mayoral race, and Omar Fateh, a Minnesota state Senator and the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party’s nominee for Minneapolis mayor have all been held at arm’s length by Democratic leaders. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/17/lindsey-grahams-challenger-says-democrats-cant-give-up-on-red-states/