Trump rallies Rock Hill to lock in Graham’s Senate seat

President Donald Trump took the stage at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center on Thursday to “God Bless the USA,” five days before South Carolinians vote and one day after a New York Times/Siena University poll showed Sen. Darline Graham tied with Democrat Annie Andrews.

The visit was Trump’s second trip to the state that month and his third of 2026, according to Roll Call’s Factba.se. He spoke for roughly 90 minutes, praised Graham, attacked Andrews on guns, law enforcement, taxes, energy and gender-affirming care, and dismissed the polls that had put the race on edge in a state that has long sent Republicans to the Senate.

“The only choice for the proud patriots of South Carolina, a state that I really love, is the incredible Senator Darline Graham,” Trump told the crowd.

Graham, appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham, opened by thanking supporters for the sympathy that followed his death and thanking Trump for the endorsement that helped her defeat Rep. Ralph Norman in the Republican primary runoff.

“Your love, comfort and prayers have sustained us during our darkest days,” she said. Addressing the president, she added that her brother had always considered him a close friend: “You will always be part of the Graham family. Thank you so much for coming to the great state of South Carolina.”

She cast herself as the only conservative in the race and warned that votes for anyone outside the Republican ticket could help Democrats take control of the Senate. She accused Andrews, a pediatrician, of misleading voters in campaign ads and called her “the most radical liberal candidate ever to run for office in the history of South Carolina.”

“Like they say out in the country, she’s just plain old batshit crazy,” Graham said.

Before Trump spoke, Gov. Henry McMaster, Republican gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson, agriculture commissioner candidate Cody Simpson and 5th District nominee Wes Climer worked the room for unity and turnout. McMaster presented Graham as a reliable fit for the state’s politics.

“Darline is conservative. She walks like we do. She thinks like we do,” McMaster said.

Wilson acknowledged that Graham had not been every Republican’s first choice and framed her service as duty rather than ambition. “Do you think for a second she wants to be a United States senator? No,” Wilson said. “She would trade it in 1,000 times over to have her brother. But she answered the call.”

Simpson cautioned against third-party votes, including for Libertarian Senate nominee Kasie Whitener: “We don’t let our friends vote third party.” Climer put the practical stake plainly: “Elections are not won at the rally, elections are won at the ballot box.”

The conservative case on the record is straightforward. Graham holds the seat Lindsey Graham left, won the nomination with Trump’s backing, and is rated Lean R by both Inside Elections and the Cook Political Report. Trump and the state’s Republican lineup argued that reelecting her protects the Senate majority that decides taxes, energy policy, law enforcement priorities and the federal rules that reach ordinary South Carolinians. Graham’s own framing—that she is the conservative in the race and that stray votes risk Democratic control—places the choice inside limited government and the taxpayer’s interest rather than personality.

The other side’s strongest argument is also on the record. The New York Times/Siena poll released Wednesday showed the candidates tied. Andrews held her own rally in Rock Hill the night before. Former Republican Gov. David Beasley and former Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges recorded a video endorsing Andrews. Those facts explain why a president who has carried York County by wide margins felt compelled to return five days out.

Primary scars remain visible. Norman defeated Graham 63.8 percent to 36.1 percent in York County during the runoff. On Thursday he told a NewsNation reporter he had not been invited to the rally and would not have attended if asked. He said he would have won the general election by 10 to 15 points. That is the real Republican division the speakers tried to close: a Rock Hill congressman who outperformed Graham in her own backyard is sitting out the final push, while the party’s national and statewide leadership is treating the seat as one that still requires turnout.

Trump answered the polling problem the way he usually does. He criticized the surveys, asked attendees who had been polled to raise their hands, then mocked the exercise and called the polls “phony.” The concrete political fact underneath the performance is simpler. A Lean R seat in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since Ernest Hollings is suddenly inside the margin of error, and the president’s schedule shows it.