Donald Trump’s desperate anti-trans campaign against cisgender South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews continued Wednesday, with the president posting a vile attack ad suggesting transgender women pose a threat to children.
The clip, which the president posted via his Truth Social account, depicts a bearded man in a pink wig, pink blouse, and skirt approaching a child who has wandered away from her mother in a grocery store. The child cowers in fear as a male narrator claims that Andrews supports “medical interventions like puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for minors” and “males competing against female athletes.”
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“She’s got my vote,” the man in the clip says as the child’s mother rushes to protect her.
“Annie Andrews is for they/them, not for our values, not for South Carolina,” a female narrator says at the end of the ad — repurposing a line used against Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.
The ad, produced by Security is Strength PAC, comes as Republicans scramble to defend the South Carolina Senate seat previously held by the late GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and currently held by his sister and Andrews’ opponent, Darline Graham.
As The Daily Beast notes, the party’s Senate Leadership Fund recently shifted $5 million into the race following polling that showed Darline Graham with just a one-point lead over Andrews in what should be a reliably red race.
Trump seems particularly focused on the South Carolina race and Andrews. On Monday, he shared a long post on Truth Social in which he repeatedly referred to Andrews using an anti-trans slur.
“I knew it was coming at some point,” Andrews told WYFF Tuesday. “I think they want it to be a distraction for me, but it’s not going to be a distraction. I am a disciplined, hard-working candidate who is outhustling and out-fundraising my opponent. That’s why national figures like the president are getting involved. But it doesn’t change why I am running, who I am running for. It doesn’t change the problems South Carolinians are facing. So, I am going to stay focused over the next four weeks on that.”
Andrews, who has focused her campaign on affordability, said she hears from voters “who are struggling to pay for their groceries, to fill up their gas tank, they are worried about their rural hospitals closing.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” she told WYFF. “You know, if name-calling could lower gas prices and diesel prices, then call me whatever name you want to call me, but that’s not going to get the job done. I am focused on getting the job done for South Carolinians.”
When Security is Strength PAC initially posted the anti-trans ad last week, Andrews had a pitch-perfect response.
In an X post featuring a screenshot from the ad showing the child picking an item from the grocery store’s shelf, Andrews simply wrote: “Why are the grocery prices blurred out?”
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