S.C. Succession: Senate Debate or Grudge Match?

by MARK POWELL

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Annie Andrews, the Lowcountry pediatrician and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, began by saying all the right things.

As she and her Republican and Libertarian opponents, Darline Graham Nordone and Kasie Whitener, stood alongside her in a SCETV television studio in Columbia, S.C. on Sunday night in the campaign’s only scheduled debate, Andrews started off playing nice in her opening statement.

“If you want to get the ugliness out of politics, this is the campaign for you,” she said.

The niceness only lasted about five minutes, though.

It should be noted at the outset that no new ground was covered during this history-making encounter. As a venerable editor once commented following after a similar political debate years ago, “no news was committed tonight.”

The same held true for this exchange. Andrews, Nordone, and Whitener each clung to their party’s respective ideology. Democrat Andrews wants better, cheaper healthcare; Nordone wants tougher immigration enforcement; and Whitener wants Congress to act on the debt before the whole fiscal house of cards collapses.

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The night’s real story was the bad blood between Andrews and Nordone – which was on full display. They repeatedly went after each other with a brisk undercurrent of seething hostility that stopped just shy of one asking the other, “you want to take this outside?”

This being South Carolina, appropriate decorum was observed. Nobody swore; no voices were raised. But glaring side glances (especially from Nordone) were repeatedly delivered with an intensity that could have burned through a ship’s hull – and barb after barb was hurled with an unmistakable but unspoken “bless your heart” putdown garnish.

Andrews didn’t hold back, going after her rival almost from the outset. After a half dozen questions on evergreen issues (the national debt, saving Social Security and energy costs), attention turned to medical costs. That was when Andrews uncorked her first salvo against Nordone.

“South Carolina deserves a senator who fights for our patients and will hold insurance companies accountable,” she said. “Who do you trust to do that? A pediatrician who’s been doing it her entire career, or a career politician?”

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She followed that up with a blistering rebuke of the Iran war, bringing up a memorable moment from Nordone’s August primary debate with conservative congressman Ralph Norman.

“My opponent is the only one on this stage who had the opportunity to vote to end the war,” Andrews said. “But three times in a row, she voted to continue it, and several days after one of those votes, she had the audacity to walk out onto this stage and admit that national security isn’t really her thing. South Carolina, if your surgeon said that appendectomies aren’t really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No. So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the U.S. Senate?”

“She is unserious and unqualified,” Andrews said.

Nordone gave as good as she got, though firing back at Andrews with an incisive rebuke.

“We all want the war to end, but I support a strong military,” Nordone said. “I believe in peace through strength. But talking about not my thing, let’s talk about what’s not your thing. Your thing, apparently, is not being honest with the people of South Carolina. At least I’m honest. If I don’t know something, I’m glad to say it. And I’ll say it again tonight, but you have, or you are, deceiving the people of South Carolina. You have flip-flopped on everything. There are so many social media posts out there to prove otherwise. Shame on you.”

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Moderator Gavin Jackson, who must have found his role akin to refereeing a roller derby, permitted Andrews to respond – and she made the most of it.

Answering in the flat accent of her Midwestern upbringing, she shot back with a twist.

“I’m not sure what she’s talking about that I flip-flopped on,” Andrews said. “She has misrepresented my positions many times up here. There’s a lot to talk about it in this U.S. Senate race. And unfortunately, my opponent has only agreed to this one 60-minute debate. I’ve agreed to three additional debates. We have a lot to talk about. That is very clear. So I want to ask Senator Graham this evening if she’ll commit to standing on another debate stage with me at least two more times before November third.” 

Jackson gamely answered, “Thanks, Dr. Andrews. We’re the ones asking the questions again tonight, but I appreciate it.”

Andrews repeated her challenge a second time later in the debate, which Nordone deftly sidestepped. For her part, Nordone scolded Andrews on two separate occasions with “you are funded and endorsed by Jane Fonda’s climate (political action committee) so you are a climate champion, according to Jane Fonda.”

Perhaps Andrews’ biggest attack was very personal – referring to Nordone’s recent reversion to her maiden name for the purpose of campaigning for U.S. Senate.

“I told you my opponent was going to call me a socialist, and there she’s done it again,” she said. “She’s been told to come out here and call me Bernie, Ocasio, Mamdani. That’s what’s in her script. But the truth is, my name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn’t be any confusion about that because unlike my opponent, I haven’t changed my name recently.”

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RELATED | S.C. SUCCESSION: ANNIE ANDREWS PUSHESS BACK

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“There she goes, insulting me, personal insults about my name again,” Nordone responded. “Just so that you and everyone else know, my legal name is Graham. It has always been Graham, and do you know why it’s Graham? Because I lost my parents when I was a little girl, and I kept the name Graham so that I felt connected to them. So my name, every document I have ever signed has Graham on it. I had a social media account where I put my husband’s last name where the volleyball moms would recognize me. So thank you for bringing up a horrible tragic memory for me.”

Within minutes of that comeback, Nordone delivered the next zinger.

“If anybody’s going to roll up sleeves and work hard for this great state of South Carolina that I love, it definitely will be me, and I’m just as qualified as you are,” she said. “You’re a pediatrician that can’t define a woman.” 

Another testy exchange came during a discussion of data centers. Nordone, who favors them, accused Andrews of following a “Bernie Sanders plan.” Andrews, who supports a federal moratorium, called Nordone “Data Center Darline.”

With the Democrat and Republican directing their fire at each other, Libertarian Whitener mostly flew under the radar. In fact, she was the only one of the trio who seemed genuinely happy to be there and who repeatedly smiled. Perhaps not coincidentally, her answers were consistently the most substantive of the night.

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“There are three ways for us to maintain our national security,” Whitener said. “One of those is diplomacy. We need to exhaust all options of diplomacy and do a much better job in that realm. The second is free trade. (If) we trade with our partners, then we’re not going to attack our partners. So we need to do a better job with that, the tariffs have put us in some danger there. And cultural exchange is a third way. One of our biggest exports is education. We bring a lot of students to the United States. We educate them, we send them back to their countries with lots of good feelings. If you remember the World Cup, when they all came to the United States over the summer, people were really excited. Europeans, Asians, our friends from Africa, they were very excited to be here and learn more about our country. We can do a better job of sharing the message of what’s wonderful about South Carolina and about our nation if we experience a lot more cultural exchange.”

Whitener tried to inject a rare moment of humor at one point during the tense exchanges. While the Democrat and Republican sparred over who would actually roll up her sleeves and work for the Palmetto State, the Libertarian – wearing a sleeveless outfit – sensed an opening.

“I don’t have any sleeves to roll up, so I’ll just leave that there,” she said.

But her bare arms revealed something interesting: a tattoo on her right forearm.

“There’s something you don’t usually see in a South Carolina Senate debate,” a veteran Palmetto political operative chuckled.

The candidates face voters in just four weeks time. Constitution Party candidate Mark Hackett is also on the ballot, and as we have previously noted there is a robust movement to write-in the name of congressman Norman on the ballot.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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