JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Trump is crisscrossing the country in the final days before Election Day to stump for Republican candidates. And he went back to South Carolina today for the second time in eight days. Now, that state is known to be ruby red, but the amount of attention and money the U.S. Senate race there is receiving raises some questions about just how safely Republican that seat is. Gavin Jackson with South Carolina Public Radio covered the president's rally in Rock Hill and is with us now. Hey, Gavin.
GAVIN JACKSON, BYLINE: Hey.
SUMMERS: So, Gavin, you've been reporting on South Carolina politics for a while now. I know because I run into you every time I go to the state. So please just help us all understand what's happening. These last few days before polls close are, of course, so crucial. And the president's making a state he won just two years ago by - let me get this right - 18 points a top priority?
JACKSON: Yeah, that's right, Juana. I used to say that we're a red state wedged between two purple states, and while we are still a very Republican state, there are some purple cracks that are appearing. Now, Trump is all-in on Darline Graham, who he urged to run for a full term following her appointment to the position after her brother, Lindsey, died in July. There was a bruising August primary that resulted in fissures that have only gotten bigger, especially among supporters of her runoff opponent, Congressman Ralph Norman, whose backyard this rally was held in. Now, Trump continued attacking Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews, who's a pediatrician, and he repeatedly called her by anti-trans slurs, all as he continues to look to boost turnout among these low propensity voters up there.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A vote for Darline is a vote to cast communists into political oblivion. And...
JACKSON: Now, what Trump hopes to accomplish with his second visit here in eight days is to enthuse Republicans and ensure they come home (ph) and not stay home on Tuesday.
SUMMERS: All right, so I just want to understand here. It sounds like one reason this race is unexpectedly so competitive has become - is because some Republicans did not get their way. They didn't get their preferred candidate back in the August primary.
JACKSON: Simply put, yes, especially some of those Norman hardcore voters - some think it may be easier to replace a Democrat in six years than a Republican named Graham. Now, this situation is so dire that Republican candidates' closing arguments this week have been the need to unify or risk losing the Senate and the House all because of South Carolina. In fact, Texas Senator Ted Cruz told Republicans in Myrtle Beach Monday that Democrats will go after Trump if they take the Senate.
Now, besides the unity messaging and Trump coming to town to turn out those low propensity voters, the money is flowing into this race. In fact, NPR's Stephen Fowler crunched numbers and found that in the past month both parties have shoveled about $40 million into the Senate race, and that's according to AdImpact tracking data. So that's four times as much as what was planned a month ago for this Senate race.
SUMMERS: OK, got it. I mean, we are really on the home stretch here. Gavin, what are you hearing about how close this race is right now?
JACKSON: I mean, look at the polls. Polls show that Graham and Andrews are either tied, like The New York Times/Siena poll, within or just outside the margin of error, like The Citadel's poll on Tuesday. And all this comes as Andrews is peaking at just the right time and is fueling Democrats' dreams of winning a seat they haven't won since 1998. In fact, a Republican pollster I spoke with yesterday is nervous but sees this as a four-point race for Graham, though the write-in Ralph movement, candidate apathy and third-party candidates will really make this closer than ever.
SUMMERS: All right, curious to see what happens there. I do wonder, though, is this affecting downballot races in South Carolina too?
JACKSON: It actually is, and that's another concern that I'm hearing from folks about, specifically in the 1st Congressional District. That's where candidates are vying to replace outgoing Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace. And that Lowcountry coastal district was flipped by a Democrat in the 2018 midterms before Mace won it back in 2020. So now Republicans fear that Democrat Nancy Lacore could flip it back, even though that district was bolstered by redistricting in 2022. Again, this is another race where you have a strong Democratic candidate who's capitalizing on this political environment and not leaning all the way into the party but showing an independent streak that's really attractive to South Carolina voters.
SUMMERS: South Carolina Public Radio's Gavin Jackson, thanks.
JACKSON: Thanks, Juana.
(SOUNDBITE OF J. COLE SONG, "FORBIDDEN FRUIT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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