The Associated Press has called South Carolina's U.S. Senate race for Democrat Annie Andrews, defeating Republican Senator Darline Graham and flipping a Republican-held seat in a state President Trump carried by about 18 points in 2024. When the AP made the call late Tuesday night, Andrews led with 984,300 votes to Graham's 916,989.
Graham conceded on Tuesday night from her watch party in Columbia and called Andrews to congratulate her. Andrews, 45, a pediatrician from Mount Pleasant, becomes the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1998. In her victory speech in Charleston, she told supporters, "we just made some history."
The seat opened earlier this year when Senator Lindsey Graham died in office and his sister Darline Graham was appointed to hold it until this election. President Trump rallied for Graham in Rock Hill on October 29, but Andrews outraised her by more than $22 million on grassroots donations, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and ran on the cost of health care for working families.
For South Carolina families, the flip sends to Washington a senator who campaigned on lowering health care and household costs, and it is one of the four flips Democrats needed to take the Senate majority — the majority that will confirm or block President Trump's nominees and decide the votes on taxes and judges in his final two years.
— Previously posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 —
Three more races were settled on Election Night and a fourth is leaning toward an upset. Republicans held two open Senate seats — Andy Barr won in Kentucky and Kevin Hern won in Oklahoma — while the Associated Press called Georgia's governor's race for Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews leads Republican Senator Darline Graham in a race the AP has not yet called.
In Kentucky, Republican Representative Andy Barr defeated Democrat Charles Booker to win the open Senate seat of retiring Senator Mitch McConnell. The AP called the race with Barr at 53.6 percent, and he widened his lead as the count finished, holding about 54 percent to Booker's 44 percent with roughly nine in ten precincts reporting. Barr, a seven-term congressman from central Kentucky, campaigned on President Trump's agenda — border security, domestic energy production and defending Kentucky values — and will serve alongside Senator Rand Paul, keeping the seat in Republican hands.
In Oklahoma, Republican Representative Kevin Hern, endorsed by President Trump, defeated Democrat N'Kiyla "Jasmine" Thomas to win the state's open Senate seat. Hern succeeds appointed Senator Alan Armstrong in the seat Markwayne Mullin gave up to become Homeland Security Secretary, and the AP's count showed Hern with 486,495 votes as the call was made.
In Georgia, the AP projected at about 9:24 p.m. Eastern that Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, has won the governor's race, defeating Republican businessman Rick Jackson by about 1,935,000 votes to 1,608,000. Bottoms becomes the first Black woman elected governor in American history, Georgia's first Black governor and its first Democratic governor since 1998, succeeding term-limited Republican Governor Brian Kemp — even though Jackson spent more than 200 million dollars of his own money on the race.
The night's possible upset is in South Carolina, where Democrat Annie Andrews leads Republican Senator Darline Graham — the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who was appointed to the seat and is backed by President Trump — by about 918,000 votes to 843,000, with roughly 88 percent of the expected vote counted. The AP still lists the race as too early to call, but CBS News and NBC News have both projected Andrews the winner; if the lead holds, she flips a Republican-held seat in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.
For voters, these results shape who holds power over the things that reach every household: the Kentucky and Oklahoma holds keep two Senate seats with the President's party, the Georgia result hands a major state government to the Democrats, and a South Carolina flip would be one more seat toward deciding whether the Senate backs or blocks the President's agenda in his final two years.
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