By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump travels to South Carolina on Wednesday to bolster Republican Darline Graham in a surprisingly competitive Senate race, even as his recent moves toward Russia have put him at odds with the sister of his late ally Lindsey Graham.
Less than two weeks before the November 3 election, Darline Graham is running about even in the polls against Democrat Annie Andrews in a state Republicans typically win handily, another sign of the political
headwinds confronting Trump's party amid high gasoline prices and the war in Iran.
Trump's rally at Clemson University comes at a personally complicated moment for Graham. Trump last week waived sanctions on Russia that her brother, a leading Republican advocate for Ukraine, had championed in the months before he died.
Graham, while otherwise supportive of Trump, has said she disagrees with the president on the sanctions.
“Personally, I would choose to put the pressure on Russia to end the war and get gas prices down," she told the Associated Press on Saturday.
"I don't trust Putin, and I don’t trust Russia," she said.
Trump has been reluctant to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war he started and instead has mounted pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to Moscow to end the conflict.
"Ukraine has to want to settle this war," Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. "We want (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy to make a deal."
Trump counted Lindsey Graham as one of his closest allies and a foreign policy adviser. He backed Darline Graham to take over her brother's seat after he died unexpectedly of a heart ailment in July and quickly endorsed her bid for a full six-year term, setting off tensions with other Republicans seeking the seat.
Trump is now traveling to South Carolina to help push her over the line. Non-partisan analysts rate South Carolina, a state Trump won in 2024 by nearly 18 percentage points, as either likely Republican or leaning Republican.
"The fact that he's coming down to South Carolina days before the election tells you how close the election is," said US Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican.
Outside Republican groups have been pouring money into the state, where early voting is underway. They have spent $9.7 million since October 1 to support Graham or attack Andrews, a pediatrician, according to a Reuters analysis of federal campaign filings.
By contrast, they have only spent $240,000 on the Senate race in neighboring North Carolina over the same period as Democrat Roy Cooper has established a firm lead over Republican Michael Whatley, despite Trump previously winning the state in all three of his presidential races.
Trump's 32-day campaign blitz has largely taken him to friendly areas that he won comfortably in previous elections, underscoring the challenges facing Republicans as they try to retain control of the US Senate and the House of Representatives.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, published on Monday, found that 31% of Americans approve of Trump's performance in office, a record low for the president.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both the House and Senate to overturn Republicans' narrow 218-214 and 53-47 majorities, respectively.
Rob Godfrey, a Republican strategist in South Carolina, said he believed Graham would end up winning although the race is "closer than some would expect in a state like South Carolina thanks to a variety of factors, including a tough national environment."
Mace said Trump needs to convince his most ardent supporters to turn out to vote.
"If there's apathy from the base, and they don’t show up, Republicans don't win," she said.
Democrats have not won a US Senate election in South Carolina since 1998, when Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, who held the seat for nearly 40 years, won his final term in office.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; additional reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and David Gaffen)
