Annie Andrews Gets Last Minute Cash From Democratic Senate PAC
The Senate Majority PAC and its affiliate, WinSenate, have started to see the race as competitive
Democrat Annie Andrews will get a $750,000 boost from a super PAC associated with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in her race to oust Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), who was appointed to her brother Lindsey Graham’s seat following his death in July.
Politico reported that Senate Majority PAC (SMP), the Senate Democrats-aligned outside group, will run digital advertisements criticizing Graham’s record on affordability by tying her to rising costs and casting Andrews as a fighter against corruption.
SMP uses its affiliate PAC, WinSenate, to make independent expenditures in many races. Until now, Democratic Senate leadership has not publicly invested in the South Carolina Senate race. The last-minute advertisement drop indicates the growing sense that this seat may be competitive. Polls indicate that Andrews and Graham’s race is in dead heat despite the fact that South Carolina is a deep-red state.
According to FEC filings, SMP raised over $354 million this midterm cycle, breaking its previous record of $306 million in the 2024 elections cycle. WinSenate has spent $273 million supporting Democratic candidates across the country, with over $168 million spent in October alone. This does not include the advertisement spending for the South Carolina Senate race, which has not yet been reported in Senate filings.
The most expensive races for the committee have been the Senate races in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Maine, which together have drawn hundreds of millions in outside spending. In Ohio, WinSenate has so far spent $85.8 million in the race pitting Democrat Sherrod Brown against Republican Sen. Jon Husted. It put in $45 million to support Abdul El-Sayed against Rep. Mike Rogers (MI-08) in Michigan and directed $43.6 million and $37 million into the Senate races in Iowa and Maine, respectively.
The PAC’s aggressive spending this election cycle has been buoyed by the possibility that Democrats could flip the Senate, a campaign once thought to be a longshot compared to the party’s odds of retaking the House this year.
