South Carolina pediatrician hoping to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham

0:00 And we're just under a month away from primary elections in South Carolina.

0:04 Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is facing some primary challengers,

0:08 but it's the possible general election matchup that's getting some attention.

0:12 A poll conducted by Impact Research projects Graham winning in November,

0:16 but in a generic re-election question,

0:18 57% of respondents say that they're looking to vote for someone else.

0:23 Dr.

0:23 Annie Andrews, Democratic candidate for South Carolina Senate, joins me now.

0:27 Dr.

0:28 Andrews, thank you very much for being here.

0:30 Thank you for having me.

0:30 Um so, I don't need to tell you

0:32 that South Carolina is a very conservative state.

0:35 Lindsey Graham has shown again and again that he uh can beat

0:37 back lots of primary challengers and also uh likely to win re-election here.

0:42 Um so, I guess my question is why run

0:46 in that kind of atmosphere against those kinds of odds?

0:50 So, I don't mind being an underdog.

0:51 I am a fighter and it is clear to me

0:53 that people in South Carolina are ready for something different.

0:56 Lindsey Graham is a career corrupt cowardly politician.

0:59 He's been our senator for 23 years now and people understand

1:03 that he really has abandoned South Carolinians and he's up in Washington, D.C.

1:06 really just doing the bidding of Donald Trump.

1:09 And on the other hand,

1:09 I'm a pediatrician and a mom who just wants to get up to D.C.

1:12 and solve problems for South Carolinians.

1:15 But for Democrats, I mean, the chances are such a long shot.

1:19 I mean, you saw Jamie Harrison try this, uh former DNC

1:22 chair with gobs of money and wasn't able to come close.

1:26 Um why kind of take this step knowing those odds?

1:30 So, our our poll shows in a head-to-head matchup,

1:32 I'm just down by two points right now.

1:33 So, we are very much within striking distance

1:36 because of the political environment we find ourselves in.

1:40 And South Carolina is not really a deep ruby red state.

1:43 On a good day, we're about 57% Republican,

1:46 you know, 43% Democrat and we can win this thing.

1:51 Jamie Harrison only lost by 10 points

1:53 and that was with Donald Trump on on ballot.

1:55 And everything Lindsey Graham has done since

1:57 2020 has made him less and less popular.

2:00 He started this war with Iran that is costing American taxpayers a billion

2:05 dollars a day when we shouldn't be

2:06 investing that money in our healthcare system,

2:09 our public education system, and fixing our roads and bridges.

2:12 The job of a US senator is to represent

2:14 the state that sent you to Washington D.C.

2:16 And Lindsey Graham has totally lost his focus on that.

2:19 And as I mentioned, you're a doctor.

2:22 Um there have been measles outbreaks in South Carolina.

2:25 Can you walk us through, first of all, what that dynamic has been like there?

2:31 Um and in your conversations with voters or people around the state,

2:37 um is there a level of concern about changes

2:40 in vaccine recommendations and what the state might be doing?

2:44 Absolutely.

2:45 So, the upstate of South Carolina has been really central

2:48 to a measles outbreak that resulted in nearly 1,000 cases of documented measles,

2:53 which means there were probably 2 to 3,000 actual cases of the measles.

2:56 And the folks that were really concerned about that was new parents,

2:59 parents of children who are too young to get that MMR vaccine,

3:02 which is safe and effective at preventing the measles virus.

3:06 And this is a direct result of the conspiracy

3:08 theories that our current secretary of HHS,

3:11 RFK Jr., has been pedaling in for decades.

3:14 He is a grifter and he has no business having

3:16 anything to do with the process of public health policy making.

3:20 And I blame Lindsey Graham for this because he abdicated his duty

3:23 as a US senator when he voted to confirm RFK Jr.

3:26 And as a result, children have unnecessarily suffered, been sick,

3:30 and even one young boy in the upstate was hospitalized for weeks

3:33 and lost the ability to walk and talk and feed himself.

3:36 So, we need to get back to the process of serious scientific,

3:39 evidence-based policy making in Washington D.C.

3:42 and that's why I'm so excited to be running in this election cycle.

3:45 I would be our nation's first ever pediatrician senator,

3:48 the first female doctor in the US Senate, and I would say it's about time.

3:52 I want to ask a little bit of the dynamics of the Democratic Party.

3:56 I mean, you were running as an outsider.

3:58 You haven't been in elected office before.

4:01 Um, what do you think your party needs to do differently?

4:05 Um, what have you seen that really needs an overhaul?

4:08 We need to fight fire with fire.

4:10 We need to realize that the 2008 playbook will not translate to 2026.

4:15 We need to take our gloves off,

4:17 and we need to learn how to be more effective messengers.

4:20 Democrats get it right when it comes to policy making,

4:24 but what we lack is the ability to go back and communicate our wins,

4:27 communicate our our successes.

4:30 We see Donald Trump putting his name on Biden infrastructure projects.

4:33 We see him now putting his name on our money and on our passports.

4:38 to be loud and proud when we do have the opportunity to lead,

4:41 and we do deliver successes for the American people,

4:44 and we need to meet people where they are.

4:46 We need to talk like regular people to regular people.

4:49 And we've just for so long been caught up in this DC machine,

4:52 and we've lost our focus on the people who sent us to represent them.

4:55 And that's why I think it's important for a generational shift in leadership,

4:58 which I would represent, and for outsiders like I am,

5:02 who just want to get up to Washington, DC,

5:04 and use the power of our political process

5:06 to solve the problems of the people in our districts.

5:09 All right.

5:09 Well, we will be keeping an eye on this race heading into the midterms.

5:12 Dr.

5:12 Annie Andrews, thank you very much for your time.

5:14 We appreciate it.

5:15 Thank you.