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, a pediatrician 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.

He ended up with five GOP opponents in this primary, after one dropped out in April. With all votes counted, Graham had 57% of the vote, a 28-percentage-point lead over his closest challenger, according to unofficial state Election Commission results.

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. In response, Graham noted the package will fully fund immigration and border agencies through Trump’s second term.

“Thanks to President Trump, our border has gone from its weakest point to its most secure point in less than two years,” Graham, the Senate budget chairman, said in a statement.

On Monday, Trump applauded Graham as helping make that happen. He 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 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 put $5 million of his own money into the campaign, branded 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.

While Graham is the 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. Speaking to Trump, he added, “I intend to pay you back by being your best ally in the United States Senate in 2027.”

Graham’s 2002 election replaced U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, who left office at age 100 after 47 years in the U.S. Senate. Graham 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.

Attempt to make history

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

The seat held by the state’s senior senator hasn’t been occupied by a Democrat since 1964, when Thurmond switched parties.

South Carolina hasn’t had a Democrat in the chamber since Sen. Fritz Hollings retired in January 2005 after 38 years in office.

In her bid to make history, Andrews received almost 62% of the vote in a three-way Democratic primary, according to unofficial state Election Commission results.

She has cited her background as a doctor and a mom in campaigning for expanding Medicaid and Medicare, making childcare affordable, and restoring national rights to an abortion as granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and thrown out in 2022. She has criticized Graham as endangering women’s lives by advocating for an abortion ban, and called him an enabler of Trump’s policies.

Brandon Brown of Greenville, who came in second with 30% of the vote, threw his support behind her Wednesday morning.

“Now, the primary is over, and our focus must turn to the challenge before us: defeating Lindsey Graham in November,” said Brown, a former administrator at historically Black colleges and universities.

This is Andrews’ second bid in four years to represent South Carolina in Washington. In 2022, she tried to oust U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace in the 1st District and lost by 14 percentage points. She told the SC Daily Gazette earlier this year she learned from that experience.

As of their latest campaign filings in late May, Graham had $4.2 million cash available, while Andrews had $2.9 million.