South Carolina Senate Race: How Things Stand Heading Into Election Day | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ashe Schow.

    The Senate election in South Carolina has turned into a battleground as incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) fights for re-election against Democrat challenger Jaime Harrison.

    Back in February, before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country, Graham had a comfortable lead in the polls, leading Harrison by double digits. When polling picked up again in July, however, Graham's lead began to shrink to single digits or statistical ties.

    The last two polls, conducted in October, show Graham leading Harrison by just a few points. The New York Times/Siena College poll, conducted between October 9 and 15, found Graham with a six-point lead. An East Carolina University poll conducted between October 24 and 25, however, showed Graham with a smaller lead of just three points.

    These final two polls heading into Tuesday's election each have margins of error over 4%. Typically, polls are less trustworthy when the margins of error are over 3%. Due to this, the support for Graham or Harrison could range anywhere from 53% for Graham and 42% for Harrison to 45% for Graham and 50% for Harrison in the ECU poll. As for the NYT/Siena poll, with a margin of error of 4.5%, the support for the two candidates ranges from 50% for Graham and 36% for Harrison to 42% for Graham and 44% for Harrison.

    So, the winner is still anyone's guess.

    RealClearPolitics and the Cook Political Report each rate the South Carolina senate race as a toss-up. Looking to history, South Carolina hasn't had a Democratic U.S. Senator since Fritz Hollings retired in 2004.

    Graham may also benefit from the presidential election since South Carolina hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976, whose election came after President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. President Donald Trump won South Carolina in 2016 by 14 points, 54.9% to Hillary Clinton's 40.7%.

    As The Daily Wire previously reported, liberal outside groups are spending money in South Carolina to prop up a third-party candidate who dropped out of the race weeks ago.

    "A political action committee founded by national Democratic operatives to help Harrison's campaign — Lindsey Must Go PAC — recently spent more than $133,000 on mailers highlighting former Constitution Party candidate Bill Bledsoe, who has dropped out of the race and thrown his support behind Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The mailers say Bledsoe is 'the only true conservative on the ballot,'" the Washington Free Beacon reported late last month.

    The South Carolina senate race has struggled due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the first debate between Graham and Harrison, the Democrat challenger stood behind a slab of plexiglass barely taller than him as a stunt to show he was serious about COVID-19, an airborne virus. Graham was standing well beyond six feet away from Harrison during the debate.

    The second debate was scrapped because Harrison refused to participate unless Graham took a COVID-19 test. That debate was set to occur the same week Trump tested positive for COVID-19.