President Donald Trump is growing increasingly desperate to avoid a jaw-dropping upset in South Carolina for his handpicked candidate, Darline Graham.
Trump, who pushed Graham to run for the Senate seat previously held by her late brother Lindsey, posted again about the South Carolina race on Wednesday.
This time he shared an attack ad accusing Graham’s opponent Dr. Annie Andrews of supporting gender affirming care for minors and men in women’s sports.
It’s his second social media post going after Andrews this week after he called her “Trannie” in a nasty post on Monday, as Republican groups are suddenly diverting millions of dollars to the once safe GOP seat in the final stretch.
While multiple ratings show the race in the deep red state will likely remain in Republican hands, it has shifted toward Andrews and polling has tightened.
Trump shared the ad by Security is Strength PAC on Wednesday that’s titled “We Can’t Trust Annie Andrews.”
The bizarre ad shows a man in a skirt and heels walking through a grocery store and a young child looking nervous as the narrator hurls accusations at Andrews.
It uses a similar line to an anti-transgender ad Trump used during the 2024 campaign, claiming she’s for “they/them.”
When the ad first came out, Andrews, who has focused her campaign largely on affordability and is on a “patients and prices tour” this week, fired back on X by reminding viewers of the high cost of living by asking: “Why are the grocery prices blurred out?”
On Monday, Trump also ranted about her and used an anti-trans slur in a post multiple times, writing, “Trannie is not for South Carolina.”
Andrews, who is not transgender but is a pediatrician and a mother of three, dismissed the president’s attacks as a distraction in an interview with a local station and argued she would remain focused on the issues impacting South Carolina.
“I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” she also wrote on X. “And I’m going to work with anyone to put South Carolina first, because lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together.”
The Daily Beast asked Andrews’ campaign for reaction to the president’s latest post focused on her.
The Trump attacks come as the Senate Leadership Fund, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate, moved to put $5 million into the South Carolina race to help prop up Graham.
Its first ad attacking Andrews also went up on Wednesday, according to tracking by Ad Impact. The spot follows on the same Republican anti-transgender theme, focusing on men in women’s locker rooms and tax dollars on sex-change drugs.
The increased focus on the race in South Carolina comes as two polls last month showed Graham with just a one-point lead in a state Trump won in 2024 by nearly 18 points.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican” two weeks ago.
But the president has gone all in for Graham. First, he encouraged South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to appoint her to serve the remainder of her brother’s term after he died unexpectedly over the summer. He then backed her to run for a full six-year term despite her never having run for public office.
When the GOP primary went to a runoff, the president rushed down to campaign for her in South Carolina to help her secure the nomination against conservative Rep. Ralph Norman, despite fierce accusations of nepotism and that she was only appointed to the seat because she was Graham’s younger sister and would remain loyal to the president.
