President Donald Trump on Wednesday night again used an anti-transgender slur against Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, during a rally to boost Republican Sen. Darline Graham less than two weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
Speaking at the T. Ed Garrison Arena, a livestock arena near Clemson University in Pendleton, Trump referred to Andrews with the slur while deriding her support for gender-affirming care, according to NBC News. Andrews is not transgender.
Not the first time
Trump has used the same slur against Andrews before. On October 5, he used it three times in a Truth Social post, saying Andrews is “not for South Carolina,” NBC News reported at the time. He was criticized for that post, including by some fellow Republicans.
Andrews largely ignored the insult then. “If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she told NBC News in a statement this month. In an earlier statement she said, “As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s rally, Andrews told The Greenville News she expected to be on the receiving end of attacks from the president.
Protesters and more attacks
Trump was repeatedly interrupted by protesters early in his speech, according to the Associated Press and The Post and Courier. “I don’t mind when they do that, but it’s always right at my punchlines,” Trump said, calling the protesters “serious losers,” The Post and Courier reported.
He also called Andrews a “rabid activist” who should have her medical license revoked. Andrews, a pediatrician, has said she does not support gender-affirming surgery for minors, a practice that is illegal in South Carolina, or transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports.
A second slur this week
It was the second time this week Trump used a slur on the campaign trail, NBC News noted. On Monday, while defending Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, who is not Jewish, over an article about lawsuits against former patients, Trump said Marshall had been made out to be a “shylock-type guy,” a term recognized as offensive toward Jewish people. Marshall has denied the article’s claims. The Anti-Defamation League condemned use of the word in a post that did not mention Trump by name.
A closer-than-expected race
Darline Graham, the younger sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, was appointed to the seat after her brother’s death in July and won the Republican nomination with Trump’s backing. She is favored in the deep-red state but faces a closer-than-expected challenge from Andrews, according to The Post and Courier. The AP reported that Graham’s stumbles in her first campaign have given Democrats hope, though not necessarily optimism, about breaking Republicans’ grip on the state.
Election Day is November 3.