Dr. Annie Andrews Is Running To Defeat Lindsey Graham—and Everyone Is Paying Attention

Last week, Dr. Annie Andrews officially launched her Democratic Senate campaign against Republican Lindsey Graham, and she hasn’t stopped since.

“I’m feeling a combination of completely exhilarated, and overwhelmed and exhausted,” the mom of three and pediatrician says with a laugh.

While Andrews had braced herself for stepping into what is sure to be a very contentious race in 2026, she hadn’t quite anticipated that her launch video would go viral immediately. The video, which features Andrews in her doctor’s coat calling out the harmful effects of the Trump administration’s policies on children, has racked up more than half a million views across social media. Many women were cheering her on for her no-nonsense approach, particularly the moment where she calls Graham “full of shit.”

Andrews is not a career politician. Less than a decade ago, she had never even considered running for office. As a self-described introvert who had never stepped into the spotlight in this way before, Andrews made the jump into activism through joining her local chapter of Moms Demand Action, the grassroots movement against gun violence started and run by mothers. She slowly grew her confidence and voice, and when the opportunity presented itself to run against Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, she was able to say, “why not me?”

The fact that Andrews has run for Congress and now has set her eye on the Senate, she says, is proof that it’s possible for women like herself to seize their power.

“There are so many women out there who are scared and frustrated and overwhelmed by the state of the world, but they don’t understand their agency,” she says. “They don’t know how to get off the sidelines and get involved. I like to talk about the fact that I was an uninvolved, regular working mom, and then I took this huge leap into politics in a very big dramatic way. When people learn about my story, I hope they understand that they can find their on-ramp, they can find their way into action.”

Glamour chatted with Andrews about how she plans to make a change in her state and how she went from advocate to candidate.

Glamour: Your campaign launch video went viral, getting more than half a million views on Instagram as of this writing and being shared all over social media. A week later, how are you feeling?

Dr. Annie Andrews: It’s been really overwhelming and incredibly encouraging because it tells me that my instinct to do this was the right instinct. That night, I started reading through some of the comments on Instagram and I was honestly brought to tears. I was so overwhelmed with the support that I was getting from people all across the country and honestly some folks in other countries as well.

I think what people were responding to was that the video was authentically me. I co-wrote it with our media team. I purposefully didn’t want to sound like every other politician because I’m not a career politician. I wanted it to be me, how I really feel, how overwhelmed and frustrated I am, but that I still have this fight in me still. And that it’s okay to not take ourselves so seriously. It’s okay to make jokes. It’s okay to show my real life of carpooling and all that stuff. I think we struck a nerve with people who are still feeling lost after 2024 and looking for a direction, looking for leaders to step up, people they can believe in. I’m just so overwhelmed and grateful for the response that our campaign received.