Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews told Newsweek in an interview published Saturday that the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has scrambled South Carolina's Senate race but not her campaign, as state officials set an Aug. 11 special Republican primary to pick a new nominee for the November ballot.

Graham, in office since 2003, died July 11 at age 71 of an aortic dissection, weeks after winning renomination in the June primary. His death left Republicans without a general-election candidate and prompted South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to appoint Graham's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to fill the remainder of the term.

The South Carolina State Election Commission released the compressed schedule under state election law: filing runs from July 21 to July 28, early voting runs from Aug. 5 to Aug. 7, and a runoff is held Aug. 25 if no candidate clears 50% plus one.

The absentee ballot application deadline is July 31.

Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician who lost to Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., by about 14 points in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District in 2022, told Newsweek, "The events of this weekend changed who I'm running against, but it didn't change who I'm running for."

She said South Carolinians' problems and her policy focus, chiefly health care, would remain her drivers in Washington.

She argued that Republican voters she encounters are alienated from what she called an "extreme" version of the GOP and want a return to a "center-right" party in the mold of John McCain.

Andrews framed a Democratic vote as a mechanism for the GOP to "self-correct" and restore working across the aisle.

The state has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since Ernest Hollings in 1998, and last backed a Democrat for president in 1976. President Donald Trump carried South Carolina by 18 points in 2024.

An Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey conducted July 14-15 among 500 likely Republican primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region and using text-to-web sampling from an Aristotle voter file and a Consensus Strategies panel, found no clear front-runner.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., drew 16%, followed by businessman Mark Lynch at 13%, Mace and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette at 10% each, and Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., at 9%. Undecided led at 18%. Subgroup margins are larger.

Trump on Friday used Truth Social to ask Graham Nordone to seek the full term, calling her the best choice to honor her brother's legacy. Norman, Mace, Fry, former Rep. Trey Gowdy, and Evette are among Republicans weighing bids.

Reps. William Timmons, former Gov. Nikki Haley, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said they will not run.

Andrews told Newsweek that once Republicans pick a nominee, "they're going to be starting from scratch."