President Trump to return to SC days ahead of midterms

COLUMBIA — President Donald Trump will return to South Carolina for the second time in two weeks as the November election approaches.

Trump will participate in a midterm rally in Rock Hill on Thursday, according to a news release Monday from the Republican National Committee. The specific location is yet to be announced.

The event is set to begin at 11 a.m., with doors opening at 9 a.m. Trump is scheduled to begin speaking at 12:30 p.m.

His afternoon appearance will allow the president to get back to the White House in time for the annual Halloween event, when he will join first lady Melania Trump to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.

The visit comes just over a week after Trump’s last appearance in the Palmetto State. The president, who is traveling the country to drum up Republican support in the lead-up to the Nov. 3 election, rallied for U.S. Sen. Darline Graham in Pendleton last Wednesday.

Graham, who was appointed to the seat following the death of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, is facing Democrat Annie Andrews, a Lowcountry pediatrician, for the term starting in January.

Although South Carolina is generally a Republican stronghold, polls suggest that race might be tighter than expected. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has the race listed as “lean Republican,” making it nearly a tossup.

Also in play is the 1st Congressional District, where Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt faces Democrat Nancy Lacore. The winner will replace Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who unsuccessfully ran for governor instead of re-election to the coastal House seat.

The Cook Political Report considers that race to “lean Republican” as well. No other U.S. House contest in South Carolina is considered competitive.

Trump rallies support for Graham in pre-election visit to deeply red Upstate

This marks Trump’s third public visit to South Carolina in three months.

The intra-party feud

His rally for Graham in Myrtle Beach ahead of the GOP special primary runoff in August is credited with helping boost turnout. Graham defeated U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman by 5 points, winning 34 of 46 counties but losing the state’s northwest corner.

Trump’s appearance will come on Norman’s home turf.

Norman lives in Rock Hill, which is part of the 5th District that he represents. The 12 counties Norman won in the runoff include York County, where he received 64% of the votes. Graham needs Norman’s conservative base to come out and support her.

The announcement comes days after Norman’s son, Warren Norman, wrote in a commentary for FITSNews that he will be voting for Andrews. Ahead of last week’s Trump rally, Norman said during a radio interview that he refuses to help Graham’s campaign, though he pledged to vote for her since he promised to support the GOP nominee.

On Monday, the third-place finisher in the 10-way GOP primary said Norman should “step into the arena” to support Graham.

“He didn’t win. I didn’t win either,” said U.S. Rep. Russell Fry ahead of his third annual Freedom Fry event in Myrtle Beach. The intra-party fight is helping Andrews, and she’s a “far different result,” said the 7th District congressman, who endorsed Graham days after losing his bid for U.S. Senate.

“So, I hope that he does in the final eight days step into the sunlight a little bit and help his Republican nominee,” he said.

State Sen. West Climer, who also lives in Rock Hill, is the Republican nominee to replace Norman in the U.S. House. He’s facing Democrat Mallory Dittmer of Fort Mill, located between Rock Hill and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Two governors

Also on Monday, Andrews’ campaign released an ad showing former Govs. David Beasley and Jim Hodges jointly endorsing her. Hodges defeated Beasley in 1998, the last time South Carolina voters elected a Democrat as governor. He too was a one-term governor, ousted in 2002 by then-U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford.

Beasley, first elected to the state House as a Democrat in 1978, switched parties in the fall of 1991 — as many Democrats in the Statehouse did at the time — saying the Democratic Party was moving too far left. Now, 32 years after voters elected him governor as a Republican, he says he no longer considers himself in the GOP.

“This is not the party that I knew, and it is not a party that I consider myself a member of as I did when I last ran for office,” he wrote in a commentary published Oct. 20 in The Post and Courier.

Beasley, who led the United Nation’s World Food Programme from 2017 until 2023, told PBS News Hour last week the “op-ed was not meant to be a party-switch thing.” Asked what party he considers himself, he said, “Well, what I am now is an American.”

Early voting began Oct. 19 and continues through Saturday.

Reporter Katharine Wilson contributed to this report from Myrtle Beach.