The top Republican super PAC involved in Senate races plans to spend $5 million in South Carolina, a source familiar with the spending confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday.
The injection of funds from the Senate Leadership Fund, a group aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is the latest sign that the race between GOP Sen. Darline Graham and Democratic pediatrician Annie Andrews is competitive. The outlay was first reported by Axios.
It comes as the Senate map is shifting further in Democrats’ favor, putting Republican-leaning states increasingly in play with less than a month remaining until Election Day.
Trump carried South Carolina by 18 points in 2024. The last Democrat elected to represent South Carolina in the Senate was Fritz Hollings, who served from 1966 until 2005.
Asked about SLF’s decision, Graham campaign spokesperson T.W. Arrighi said in a statement, “After over a month of non-stop misleading ads from Annie Andrews, funded by millions of out-of-state dollars, South Carolinians are beginning to learn the truth.”
The Andrews campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham to the seat soon after her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, died suddenly in July. Within days, Darline Graham announced she would run for a full six-year Senate term with the backing of President Donald Trump. Graham became the GOP Senate nominee after she defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in a primary runoff in August.
The president has campaigned for Graham and on Monday used an anti-transgender slur to attack Andrews in a Truth Social post, referring to her three times as “trannie.” Andrews is not transgender.
An outside GOP group, Security Is Strength, also launched an attack ad against Andrews on Monday focused on transgender issues.
But it’s Andrews who has been dominating the airwaves so far this fall. Since the beginning of September, Andrews’ campaign has spent $6.1 million on ads, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
That’s nearly 10 times more than the $687,000 in ads from outside Republican groups. Graham’s own campaign has not spent any significant funds on ads since the August primary runoff.
The new spending underscores how races that were previously considered competitive — like the Senate matchup in North Carolina between Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley and the Georgia race between Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Mike Collins — are now viewed as leaning toward Democrats.
The Senate race in solid red Kansas between GOP Sen. Roger Marshall and Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton also has tightened.
In response to that changing dynamic, the Senate Leadership Fund canceled its ad spending in North Carolina’s Senate race last week and launched a new ad campaign in Kansas.
