CLEMSON, S.C. — President Donald Trump heads to the Upstate on Wednesday night to campaign for U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, a stop that comes one day after a national election handicapper moved South Carolina’s Senate race a notch closer to a toss-up.
The 7 p.m. rally is set for the T. Ed Garrison arena, a rodeo venue near the Clemson University campus that holds about 3,000 people. It is Trump’s second South Carolina visit this year and falls in the middle of a six-day swing through six Republican-leaning states.
On Tuesday, the Cook Political Report shifted the race between Graham and Democrat Annie Andrews from likely Republican to lean Republican. Recent public polls have put the contest within single digits, though Graham is still considered the favorite in a state Trump won by 18 points in 2024 and where voters have not chosen a Democrat for the Senate since 1998.
Graham, a former head of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, took the seat by appointment in July when her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, died, then won a runoff for the Republican nomination over U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman by about 18,000 votes. Norman carried every Upstate county in that runoff, and Pickens County, home of the rally, is one of the most Republican places in the state.
Andrews, a pediatrician from the Charleston area, has focused on health care, grocery and child care costs and public schools, and has spent heavily on advertising in the Upstate. Graham has Trump’s endorsement and a $5 million pledge from the Senate Leadership Fund.
Early voting is underway through Oct. 31, ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
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