US Sen. Lindsey Graham defeats 5 GOP challengers to face Dr. Annie Andrews in November

COLUMBIA — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham walloped his GOP challengers Tuesday on the way to fulfilling his pledge to be President Donald Trump’s “best ally” in the U.S. Senate.

When The Associated Press called the race about 9 p.m., Graham had more than 58% of the vote to again avoid a primary runoff, continuing an unbroken record. In November, he will face Democrat Annie Andrews, who won a three-way primary for the chance to be South Carolina’s first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in 28 years.

First elected to the Senate in 2002, Graham has never needed a runoff. Tuesday marked the third time he’s fended off crowded GOP fields: In 2020, he bested three GOP opponents with almost 68% of the vote. In 2014, he took 56% of the vote in a seven-way race.

His bid for a fifth term brought an early endorsement from Trump in March 2025.

The president reminded voters of his “complete and total endorsement” during a tele-rally Monday evening. He credited Graham with helping deliver last summer’s “big, beautiful” law, which cut taxes while providing $170 billion toward immigration enforcement. On Tuesday, Republicans in Congress finalized approval of an additional $70 billion.

Trump also called Graham an “unwavering champion for a strong military,” to include “fighting with me all the way” to end Iran’s nuclear activities.

But the war with Iran, which started in late February with a bombing by U.S. and Israeli forces, also provided a point of attack for Graham’s challengers.

Graham’s best-funded GOP opponent, Upstate businessman Mark Lynch, blamed the war on Graham, saying the president was listening to the senator and his interventionist calls for a strike.

Graham has advocated a direct confrontation with Iran for over a decade, saying from the outset that the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran wouldn’t stop the country from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Lynch, who largely self-funded his campaign, brands himself as the “America first” conservative. He also faulted Graham as insufficiently loyal to the president, pointing to Graham’s sometimes-rocky relationship with Trump ahead of and during his first term. Graham briefly competed against Trump for the 2016 GOP nomination but withdrew in late 2015 ahead of South Carolina’s presidential primary.

On Monday, Trump said he and Graham are “best of friends,” discounting their days of disagreement as a long time ago. And Trump noted that Graham was an early backer of his 2024 bid.

“Ever since we really got together and got to know each other, he’s been absolutely fantastic,” Trump said on the 20-minute, call-in election rally.

Trump also publicly opposed Lynch. In a post in April on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Lynch a lunatic who “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party.” Trump also blasted former candidate Paul Dans in an April post announcing his withdrawal from the contest. Dans, who worked in the first Trump administration and had long pitched himself as a truer Trump loyalist than Graham, endorsed Lynch as he made his own announcement about 30 minutes later.

In thanking Trump for the wholehearted endorsement, Graham said Monday he’ll return the favor by getting “as many conservative judges on the bench as we can” in Trump’s last two years.

Graham is currently Senate Budget chairman. If re-elected, he could again chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, a role he held from 2019 to 2021.

“I’ll wake up every morning and go to bed every night working with President Trump to put judges on the court,” Graham said during the call.

Graham’s 2002 election replaced U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, who left office at age 100 after 47 years in the U.S. Senate. He was first elected to Congress in 1994, when he became the first Republican elected to the 3rd District since Reconstruction. That followed one term in the state House.

No U.S. senator from South Carolina has lost a re-election race in 82 years.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.