Tonight, I'm at @LindseyGrahamSC HQ in Columbia, SC.
Polls close at 7pm.
Will update on #SCSen, as well as other state & nat'l race calls.
Will tweet AP race calls as they come.
For those of you following nationally, #SC01 was the first U.S. House seat to flip from Republican to Democrat in South Carolina since 1986. Republicans desperately want this seat back and have been targeting it since @JoeCunninghamSC took office in 2018.
Sitting next to one of my favorite people tonight.
I like to tease him, but the Palmetto State is lucky to have @jslovegrove.
In his candidacy’s nascence, @harrisonjaime told me he imagined it'd take $10M to oust Graham. In the end, he raised more than 10 times that, becoming the first Senate candidate ever to cross the $100M threshold.
In all, he brought in a total of $130M, according to his campaign.
Analyzing the spending Wednesday, @SCGOP Chairman @DrewMcKissick told me that, given Graham’s decisive win, coupled with a red wave that swept through races across the state, he imagined out-of-state Democrats would feel hard-pressed to hone in on South Carolina, anytime soon.
JUST IN: @JoeCunninghamSC not conceding #SC01 for now. Campaign says in statement that "both candidates have agreed that every ballot must be counted and every voice heard before an election result is called.”
@NancyMace, however, tells me she accepts last night's race call.
Mace goes on to tell me that she hasn’t spoken with Cunningham or his campaign since the result was announced, adding “the ‘agreed to’ part is disappointing.”
Meanwhile, I’m at this @WaffleHouse in Ladson, SC, where Mace once worked. She’s just arrived to deliver her #SC01 victory speech.
NEW: Senate candidate @harrisonjaime announcing this morning that he has raised a record $57 million in the Q3 in his race against @LindseyGrahamSC.
This is the highest quarterly amount raised by a Senate candidate in US history.
Brings his total haul to an unfathomable $86M.
These lines from the Q2 story I wrote back in 2019 continue to stick out:
"Harrison, 43, has said that he thinks it could take $10 million to win the race next year."
"In the first quarter of 2019, (Graham) raised more than $2 million, setting a personal quarterly record."
Needless to say, we've come a long way since the days (last year) when $4.6 million was considered “one of the largest campaign war chests among Republican incumbents in the country.”
Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC and @harrisonjaime are set to meet for their second debate tonight, although campaign clashes over COVID-19 are stirring doubts of whether the matchup will go on at all.