STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Just one year ago, if you peered at a map of the United States, it took hard work to imagine where Democrats could have won enough seats to capture the U.S. Senate. Today, we know they had more than enough. They had a very big night in the South, holding a Senate seat in Georgia, picking up a seat in North Carolina and winning South Carolina, one of the reddest states in the Union. Democrat Annie Andrews beat Senator Darline Graham.
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ANNIE ANDREWS: I'll be an independent voice who will work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to do what's right for South Carolina. I will be a brick wall between Washington, D.C. and South Carolina, even when it means standing up to my own party.
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INSKEEP: South Carolina Public Radio's Gavin Jackson was covering that race and is on the line. Gavin, good morning.
GAVIN JACKSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. So how on earth did Republicans lose a state that President Trump won by 18 points just a couple of years ago?
JACKSON: That is the big question, of course. And Republicans usually get in line behind the party's nominee. That's what I've always seen covering politics here. But they did not do that Tuesday, even when it was Trump's candidate. The result was that the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Darline, who President Trump picked to run, lost to Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.
Now, Andrews becomes the first Democrat elected to the Senate here since 1998 and becomes the first woman elected to serve in the Senate from South Carolina. She had solid fundraising, a focused message on pocketbook issues, data center concerns and concerns about what she called Washington's influence. And South Carolinians, like you heard Andrew say, have an independent streak. And that lines up with Republicans' concerns over the appearance of a coronation that shut out other viable Republicans in this race. So this race also illustrates Trump's waning influence.
INSKEEP: OK. So I talked about the map of the United States looking different and bluer than we could have imagined a year ago. Let's zoom in now on the map of South Carolina. When you look at the different counties and regions of South Carolina, how big were the swings?
JACKSON: Right. So let's go back to 2024, when 12 of 46 counties here went for Vice President Kamala Harris. That's a map that I'm used to seeing in statewide elections. But Andrews won twice as many counties Tuesday. She won a couple of counties, like Greenville and York, that Trump won by 20 points. We're...
INSKEEP: Wow.
JACKSON: ...Talking about the upstate region here.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
JACKSON: And so there are massive swings here that in typical Republican bastions - that we just don't see happening. There were other close margins for Andrews in those ultraconservative upstate counties, big swings. And there were also these areas that the late Senator Lindsey Graham would win by 20- to 40-point margins in the general election.
And of course, turnout was a big factor here as well. Just over 2 million ballots were cast, and that broke a previous gubernatorial election record. And that was driven by high Black voter turnout, as well, motivated by the Democratic nominee for governor, who's Black. That was Jermaine Johnson. He did not win, but he lost narrowly to Republican state Attorney General Alan Wilson. So a lot of things - a lot of interesting things happening here in South Carolina.
INSKEEP: Yeah. Yeah. And this is a pattern we've seen all across the South - this massive Black vote. I think we're about to talk a little more about that. Gavin Jackson of South Carolina Public Radio, thanks so much.
JACKSON: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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