On the night of the 2026 midterms, a quiet but consequential turn surfaced in two distant corners of the American political story. In South Carolina, a state that had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998 and that Donald Trump carried by 18 points in 2024, ABC News projected that Annie Andrews would take a seat once held by the late Lindsey Graham. Farther north, Maryland voters appeared poised to pass Question 3, a measure that does not redraw any lines itself but loosens the path toward a new congressional map for 2028. Together they show how a single election night can reopen questio
Democrat Annie Andrews Projected to Flip South Carolina Senate Seat; Maryland Redistricting Measure Passes
No Democrat has won a Senate seat in South Carolina since 1998
Mark
Why does the South Carolina call matter so much?
Mimi
The numbers do the work. No Democrat has won a Senate seat there since 1998, and Trump took the state by 18 points in 2024.
Mark
And the person she beat wasn't a typical incumbent, right?
Mimi
Darline Graham was appointed to the seat after her brother Lindsey Graham died. She was seeking her first full term and is projected to lose.
Luke
Worth saying plainly: this is a projection by ABC News, not a certified result. The reporting here doesn't give vote totals or a margin.
Mark
Turning to Maryland, what does Question 3 actually do?
Mimi
It makes it more feasible for the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw the congressional map ahead of 2028. It doesn't contain a map itself.
Luke
So no district lines have changed. Anyone describing it as a new map is getting ahead of the facts.
Mark
Why would Democrats want this?
Mimi
They say it's a counter to Republican-led redistricting in other states. Gov. Wes Moore has promoted it.
Luke
And the state Senate president blocked a full redraw for 2026, saying it would backfire legally. Whether the legislature will use the new flexibility for 2028 is unknown.
Il Polso
- A Senate seat long considered safely Republican in South Carolina has been projected to flip to Democrat Annie Andrews, startling observers who had not expected a Democratic breakthrough there since 1998.
- The seat was held by the late Lindsey Graham, and his appointed successor, his sister Darline Graham, is projected to lose her bid for a full term, turning a succession into a political upset.
- In Maryland, Question 3 is projected to pass, opening a door for Democrats to redraw the congressional map for 2028 as a counter to Republican-led redistricting elsewhere.
- Maryland's state Senate president has already blocked a full redraw for 2026, warning it could backfire legally, so the fight now shifts to whether lawmakers will act once the measure takes effect.
- Andrews's win still awaits confirmation as remaining votes are counted, and Maryland's new-map question remains open for the next cycle.
On the night of the 2026 midterms, a quiet but consequential turn surfaced in two distant corners of the American political story. In South Carolina, a state that had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998 and that Donald Trump carried by 18 points in 2024, ABC News projected that Annie Andrews would take a seat once held by the late Lindsey Graham. Farther north, Maryland voters appeared poised to pass Question 3, a measure that does not redraw any lines itself but loosens the path toward a new congressional map for 2028. Together they show how a single election night can reopen questions that seemed settled, and how the rules governing future maps can matter as much as the maps themselves.
ABC News projected late on election night that Democrat Annie Andrews will win the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina, taking a seat that had been held by the late Lindsey Graham. For a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and that Trump carried by 18 points in 2024, the call was one of the most striking moments of the midterm night.
The race was unusual from the start. After Graham's death, his sister, Darline Graham, was appointed to the seat and sought a full term of her own. ABC News projects she will lose, a result it described as a major coup for Democrats.
Farther north, ABC also projected that Maryland's Question 3 will pass. The measure does not contain a new map. It makes it more feasible for the Democratic-controlled legislature to redraw the congressional map ahead of 2028, a counter to Republican-led redistricting in other states. The result is a win for Gov. Wes Moore, who is running for reelection and is considered a possible 2028 presidential candidate.
The path is not yet clear. Maryland's state Senate president blocked a full redraw for 2026, arguing it would backfire legally, and Question 3 does not change that for this cycle. What comes next is whether lawmakers produce a new map once the measure takes effect, and how Andrews's win is confirmed as the remaining votes are counted.
ABC News projected late on election night that Democrat Annie Andrews will win the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina, taking a seat that had been held by the late Lindsey Graham. The call, reported in ABC's live midterm coverage, was one of the most striking results of the 2026 night.
The seat's recent history makes the projection notable. South Carolina has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. In 2024, Donald Trump carried the state by 18 percentage points. Democrats had little reason to expect a win of this kind in a state with that record.
The race was also unusual because of how the incumbent came to be on the ballot. After Graham's death, his sister, Darline Graham, was appointed to the seat. She sought a full term of her own, and ABC News projects that she will lose. ABC described the result as a major coup for Democrats.
Farther north, ABC also projected that Maryland's ballot initiative known as Question 3 will pass. The measure makes it more feasible for the Democratic-controlled state legislature to redraw Maryland's congressional map ahead of the 2028 elections. The measure does not contain a new map. It changes the conditions under which one could be drawn.
The result is a win for Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who is running for reelection and is also considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028. Moore has promoted redistricting in Maryland.
Democrats framed the measure as a response to Republican-led redistricting in other states. By making it easier for Maryland to redraw its own lines, they said, they hope to counter those efforts.
There is a complication. Maryland's state Senate president has blocked attempts to fully redraw the map for 2026. Such a redraw would have been designed to flip the state's only Republican-held congressional district. He said he believed the effort would backfire legally. Question 3's passage does not change that for this cycle, since its effect is aimed at 2028.
What to watch now: whether Maryland lawmakers actually produce a new map once the measure takes effect, and how Andrews's projected win is confirmed as the remaining votes are counted.
Citazioni salienti
Maryland's state Senate president said he felt a full redraw for 2026 would backfire legally.— Maryland state Senate president, as reported by ABC News
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