With 53 percent of precincts having reported results in South Carolina, Graham was leading Harrison by nearly 13 percentage points, at 55.8-42.9 percent. Pollsters had considered the contest a tight race as the battle over confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett boosted Democrat fund-raising.

Graham said in a September Fox News interview that Harrison was on track to spend nearly $100 million on the race. The previous record for any South Carolina Senate election was the $13 million that Graham spent in 2014. "I'm being killed financially," he said. "This money is because they hate my guts."

Graham won his fourth term in the Senate after playing a pivotal role in the confirmation of another Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh. He pivoted from being a critic of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016, after making a failed bid for the Republican nomination himself, to becoming one of his strongest allies in the Senate.

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