COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina will elect a new U.S. senator on Nov. 3, 2026, the first time the state's Class II seat has been genuinely open since Lindsey Graham won it in 2002. Graham died in office after 23 years, and his sister Darline Graham currently holds the seat by appointment. She is not the political figure her brother was — and everyone in South Carolina Republican politics knows it.
The Republican primary to determine who runs in November is scheduled for Aug. 13, two days from now. The field includes Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, both sitting members of Congress. The winner faces Democrat Annie Andrews in the general election. Andrews, a pediatrician, defeated Brandon Brown and Kyle Freeman in the Democratic primary on June 9, 2026.
Kasie Whitener won the Libertarian nomination at the party's convention on April 11, 2026, defeating Jason Brenkus. Whitener will appear on the November ballot as a third option, though South Carolina's statewide elections have not produced a competitive third-party result in decades.
The Class II seat carries a term that runs through Jan. 3, 2027, meaning whoever wins in November fills only the remaining weeks of Graham's term before the new Congress is seated. The longer political prize is the full six-year term that begins in January 2027, which the winner of this race will be positioned to seek.
Darline Graham's appointment reflects how the seat transferred. Lindsey Graham served from 2003, winning re-election in 2008 over Bob Conley, in 2014 over Brad Hutto, Victor Kocher and Thomas Ravenel, and in 2020 over Democrat Jaime Harrison and Constitution Party candidate Bill Bledsoe. His 2020 margin was watched nationally — Harrison raised a record sum for a Senate challenger in South Carolina that cycle — but Graham won. His death ended a Senate career that stretched across six presidencies.
Norman and Fry represent different factions of the state's GOP. Norman, who represents South Carolina's 5th Congressional District, has been a member of the House Freedom Caucus and a consistent vote against federal spending increases. Fry, who represents the 7th District along the Grand Strand coast, is a younger figure who has aligned closely with President Trump. The winner of Tuesday's primary has roughly 84 days to run a general election campaign against Andrews.
Andrews enters the general as the underdog in a state Trump carried by wide margins in both 2020 and 2024. South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Fritz Hollings, who retired in 2005. Tim Scott, the state's senior senator, won re-election in November 2022, defeating Krystle Matthews. The structural environment for a Democrat in a South Carolina Senate race is difficult.
Andrews' profile as a practicing pediatrician gives her campaign a message on health care, which Democrats have used effectively in suburban districts elsewhere. Whether that translates in a statewide race against a Trump-aligned Republican in South Carolina is the central question of the fall campaign. She ran a three-way primary and won outright on June 9 without a runoff, suggesting her coalition within the Democratic primary electorate held together.
The filing deadline for the race was March 30, 2026. The primary runoff date, had one been needed on the Republican side, was set for June 23, 2026. The special Republican primary on Aug. 13 was structured separately from the regular June primary process because the seat became vacant after standard filing deadlines.
Strom Thurmond remains South Carolina's longest-serving senator, having held a seat from 1954 through 2003 — a span of nearly five decades. Graham's 23 years placed him second among recent figures. Norman, Fry and Andrews are all running to fill a seat whose occupant has defined the state's national political identity for most of the past 70 years, and Tuesday's Republican primary is the first real decision point.
