Trump Rally in Rock Hill: Fox Moves the South Carolina Senate Race to a Toss-Up as Hundreds Line Up for Graham
On the morning of the president's third South Carolina stop, Fox News shifted the Graham-Andrews race from a Republican lean to a toss-up - and the rally itself sits in the part of the state that voted for Graham's primary rival.
ROCK HILL, S.C. - Hundreds of people in red Make America Great Again hats lined up early Thursday outside the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center, waiting for President Donald Trump's third South Carolina stop before Election Day - a rally for Sen. Darline Graham that arrives on the same morning Fox News shifted its forecast of her race against Charleston Democrat Annie Andrews from a Republican lean to a toss-up, following a New York Times/Siena poll that put the two candidates tied at 48 percent each.
The location carries its own message. All three of the president's South Carolina stops have been in places Graham did not win in either the August 11 special Republican primary or the August 25 runoff. Rep. Ralph Norman won the Upstate in both rounds, and he also won the Rock Hill area - where he grew up, and which sits in the district he represents in Congress. After Norman's loss, a social media campaign urged voters to write him in for the Senate, and his son Warren wrote in an op-ed that he will not support Graham and will vote for Andrews despite being a lifelong Republican. Attorney General Alan Wilson, the Republican nominee for governor, made the unity case to the crowd's party directly: 'Not voting for Darline Graham isn't just not voting for Darline Graham,' Wilson said. 'You are saying indirectly that you're okay with Chuck Schumer being the majority leader of the United States Senate.'
Sen. Tim Scott, who has been touring competitive Senate states including Texas and Michigan, pressed the same point from the stage. 'We must protect the America we love,' Scott said. 'That means voting Republican from the top of the ticket all the way down to the bottom.' In the line outside, Lexington resident Holly Vaucher explained her own drive to Rock Hill simply: 'I like her platform, and I love America,' she said. The president was expected to speak shortly after 12:30 p.m. Eastern. South Carolina's early voting runs through October 31, with centers open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; polls on Election Day, November 3, are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. This station will file the president's remarks separately, on what he actually says.
