Trump backs Darline Graham, hits Annie Andrews as wrong for South Carolina

President Trump urged South Carolina voters to reject Democrat Annie Andrews over her push for transgender treatments on minors and stick with Republican Sen. Darline Graham.

In a Truth Social post Monday, the president threw his weight behind Graham in the Palmetto State Senate race and tore into Andrews over a long public record favoring so-called gender-affirming care for youth, open borders, and gun restrictions, the New York Post reported.

Trump framed the choice in plain terms for South Carolina: Graham shares the state's values, and Andrews does not. The race is tighter than many expected, and the election is only weeks away.

Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, holds the seat after her brother's unexpected death on July 11 and her later appointment. Andrews, a 45-year-old pediatrician and mother of three, is trying to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from South Carolina since 1998.

Trump did not soften the contrast. He praised Graham as a high-quality leader and listed Andrews' positions as a direct mismatch with the people she wants to represent.

Trump lays out Andrews' record in blunt terms

The president's post named the Democrat with a pointed nickname tied to her transgender advocacy and then went straight at policy.

Trump wrote that Graham is "a High Quality person, maybe the Highest," while arguing Andrews fails the values test for South Carolina.

He stated the charge this way:

"Darline is a High Quality person, maybe the Highest, and Annie T****** is not, in particular, as it pertains to representing the Values of the Great People of South Carolina, She is in favor of Transgender for Everyone, Open Borders, Defunding the Police, High Taxes, a Weak Military, and will absolutely fight to take your guns away, In other words, she is against our Great Second Amendment!"

He closed the appeal with a clear election order for the state.

"T****** is not for South Carolina, and South Carolina must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her."

That is the ballot question Trump wants voters to answer. Not tone. Not Washington spin. Whether Andrews' agenda belongs in a South Carolina Senate office.

Andrews' own words put kids and hormones at the center

Andrews is not transgender. She is a pediatrician who has repeatedly backed medical steps for youths who say they are transgender, while saying she opposes surgery on minors.

On a podcast last year she described what that care looks like in practice once puberty arrives.

"And then as they reach puberty, gender-affirming care, evidence-based gender-affirming care can include the prescription of hormone blockers, so that they don't go through puberty as the gender that they do not identify as, and then cross-sex hormones later."

She also cast the goal as building a "safe and welcoming environment for these kids." Parents and voters can read those lines and decide whether blocking a child's normal puberty is medicine or ideology.

In 2023 she told ProPublica she was deeply disappointed that her then-employer would not declare gender-affirming care "not child abuse." She had already taken a leave from the Medical University of South Carolina's Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital and later resigned, saying the institution failed to back the vulnerable youth she wanted defended.

During her failed 2022 House run, Rep. Nancy Mace likened Andrews' support for medicating transgender-identifying kids to child abuse. The dispute is not new. Trump simply dragged it back into a statewide Senate fight.

Voters watching other high-stakes fights this cycle have seen the same pattern of hard political costs, including when Lara Trump flagged midterm risks while arguing a core national interest still comes first.

Graham holds a slim edge in a lightly polled race

RealClearPolitics' latest average shows Graham ahead by 2.4 percentage points. That is no blowout. It is a margin that rewards turnout and clarity.

Trump's post treated the race as a values contest, not a personality spat. He cast Graham as the fit for South Carolina and Andrews as the candidate of transgender expansion, weak borders, higher taxes, a softer military, and new pressure on gun rights.

Andrews answered on X Monday without directly addressing the nickname or the specific policy indictment. She leaned on her roles as a mom and pediatrician and tried to shift the race toward household bills.

"As a mom and a pediatrician, I'm in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina. And I'm going to work with anyone to put South Carolina first, because lowering costs and making life better for families across our state is going to take all of us working together."

She added that the campaign is for people who "care more about your bills than the politics in Washington." Lower costs matter. So does whether a senator believes puberty blockers belong in the toolkit for confused minors.

Trump has shown before that he will break publicly with Republicans when he thinks they are wrong on core enforcement questions, as he did after an immigration fight with Rep. Salazar drew his pushback. He is applying the same direct style to a Democrat he says fails the South Carolina test.

Beasley calls the tone wrong as voters weigh substance

Former Republican Gov. David Beasley, who served from 1995 to 1999, branded the president's comments "abhorrent" and warned against cruelty in elections.

"Elections don't have to be about cruelty and lies. South Carolina deserves better. I urge voters to look at the merits of each candidate and cast their vote accordingly. We must reject politics based on division and hate. While South Carolinians can strongly disagree with one another, we can do so civilly and with honest intentions for the betterment of our communities and well being of our families."

Beasley wants a civil argument on the merits. The merits still include Andrews' recorded support for hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones for youths, her anger that a children's hospital would not rubber-stamp that approach, and Trump's claim that she also lands on the wrong side of borders, policing, taxes, the military, and the Second Amendment.

South Carolina families can reject personal venom and still refuse a Senate candidate whose medical politics treat blocked puberty as compassion. Lawful residents and parents living with the results of elite fashion on sex and schools have a right to demand clarity before they vote.

Coverage of the broader Trump orbit keeps serving up separate side dramas, from press-credential fights around Melania Trump's UN event choices to recycled book claims the White House has swatted down. None of that changes the choice in this race.

Andrews wants the conversation on grocery bills and bipartisan manners. Trump wants it on whether her transgender agenda, and the rest of the platform he listed, matches South Carolina. Graham is the incumbent asking for a full term after a sudden family loss that reshaped the seat.

Even familiar noise around the Trump family brand, including fresh pushback when Michael Wolff rehashed old Melania claims, stays secondary to a Senate ballot about guns, borders, and what adults may do to children's bodies.

The lightly polled contest leaves little room for fog. Either Andrews' record is an asset in the Palmetto State, or it is the reason she loses.

South Carolina can argue policy without theatrics, but it does not have to pretend hormone blockers for minors are a small side issue while a Democrat who champions them asks for six years in the Senate.