MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It's a new day in many states where Democrats flipped seats, even against the odds, and including red South Carolina. Democrat and doctor, Annie Andrews, will head to the U.S. Senate in January, having bested Republican candidate Darline Graham, the incumbent and the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. She joins us now. Dr. Andrews, or maybe I should say Senator-elect Andrews, welcome.
ANNIE ANDREWS: Well, thank you so much for having me.
KELLY: If I had told you a few years ago that South Carolina would elect to the U.S. Senate someone who is pro abortion rights, pro some gun control measures and that that person would be you, would you have believed me?
ANDREWS: I definitely would not have believed the part about it being me. This was never a career path I saw for myself. I decided to be a doctor when I was 4, and I never planned to do anything other than practice pediatrics. But what I saw in the hospital for the 20 years I worked as a pediatrician in the children's hospital, it drove me to want to get involved in politics to solve the problems I was seeing in the hospital exam room.
KELLY: And is that, being a pediatrician, going to inform the way you take on this new job?
ANDREWS: Absolutely. You know, those stories that I will carry with me to Washington, D.C., of watching insurance companies stand between sick children and the care that they need, sitting down with parents after diagnosing their children with new chronic diseases like asthma or diabetes and watching them worry about whether or not they can afford the asthma inhaler I prescribed or the insulin I prescribed for their diabetes - these families need help. There's so many families like that across South Carolina, and I'll be fighting for them in the U.S. Senate.
KELLY: So I mentioned that you beat Darline Graham to win this race. She got herself in all kinds of hot water over the summer in a debate when she said, and I quote, that she wasn't "that informed on national security." So I want to ask you, with respect, what does your learning curve look like on national security, foreign policy, all kinds of things that maybe hadn't been front and center for you as a South Carolina pediatrician?
ANDREWS: Yeah, so I've done my homework my whole life. You have to do that to get into medical school and graduate from medical school. And I'm looking forward to, you know, being ready for this job on Day 1. And, you know, Darline's gaff on national security certainly set the tone for what a lot of South Carolinians thought about her. But I think the real story was South Carolina rejected the idea that Washington, D.C., was going to pick our next senator. And she really represented everything that's broken in Washington, D.C. And instead, they chose me, someone who vows to be an independent voice, to work across the aisle to solve the problems that I heard about on the campaign trail for the past 18 months.
KELLY: I saw Nikki Haley, the Republican former governor of your state. She said last night South Carolina didn't vote for you. They voted against Trump Republicans. What do you think? Do you think both can be true?
ANDREWS: I think we worked really hard to build a campaign that was for everyone. And we brought together people from across the political spectrum. I was so proud to earn the endorsement of former Republican South Carolina Governor David Beasley, also proud to have the support of Ralph Norman's children, including his son, Warren Norman. And we built a campaign that was really laser-focused on the problems South Carolinians face, regardless of if you're a Republican, a Democrat or an independent.
And that's what the story from last night was - that people are tired of the divisiveness. They're more concerned about what's happening in South Carolina than they are about the party politics in Washington, D.C. And they saw in me someone who will be a fighter for South Carolina, someone who's serious about solving these problems and, again, willing to work across the aisle. The only two senators I've talked to since I won my race last night are Senators Darline Graham and Senator Tim Scott. And Tim Scott and I are planning to get together next week because we're going to work together to solve...
KELLY: Yeah.
ANDREWS: ...The problems that we're facing here in South Carolina.
KELLY: Well, talk me through that. What does it actually look like to work across the aisle? And specifically, how are you thinking about working with President Trump? He has already said he plans to use his veto power aggressively.
ANDREWS: I'll work with anyone who's willing to solve the problems that we're facing here. You know, in particular, with Donald Trump, I support the no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. I've seen him do some work to lower the cost of prescription drugs. But I take my - you know, I take the same approach I took to my job as a pediatrician. You walk into a hospital room of a sick or injured child. It doesn't matter what the patient and family's background is, their political ideology, how - you know, what kind of insurance they have. You just take care of the problem in front of you. And I think that's the governing approach we need to take in Washington, D.C.
So, you know, Tim Scott and I are going to be representing South Carolina together in the U.S. Senate. And today, when we talked, we discussed that we don't agree on a lot, but we agree that South Carolina needs two people in the Senate who will work to solve the problems that South Carolina is facing. So I look forward to being part of a new era of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.
KELLY: And just quickly, and God forgive me for already bringing up 2028, but the first Democratic primary of 2028 is South Carolina, your state. What do you see your role as being?
ANDREWS: You know, I'm really not focused on that. We just won this race last night, and I'm really focused on building the strongest Senate office South Carolina has ever seen to deliver the best constituent services we have ever seen here in South Carolina.
KELLY: Right.
ANDREWS: And then my No. 1 priority in D.C. will be stopping these Medicaid budget cuts.
KELLY: We will look forward to calling you back between now and 2028 and seeing how it's going. That's Annie Andrews, Democratic senator-elect in South Carolina. Thank you.
ANDREWS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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