Darline Graham’s Opponent Rips Senator’s ‘Work Hard ’Til You Die’ Health Plan: Her ‘Parents Deserved Better’

Dr. Annie Andrews, South Carolina’s Democratic Senate nominee, ripped Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-SC) approach to healthcare as “work hard ’til you die” on CNN Wednesday, arguing that Graham’s “parents deserved better” after the senator stressed that they “had to get up and go to work” even when sick.

Graham won the state’s Tuesday Republican Senate runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), with President Donald Trump’s backing. During her victory speech, Graham launched an attack against Andrews, her opponent in the general election and a pediatrician, for running on a platform that calls for expanding access to healthcare and treating it as a human right.

“My parents worked long, hard hours. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work,” Graham explained. “My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later.”

Her comments gained a major online response from critics, with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) writing on X late Tuesday, “And shouldn’t we fight for more?? In the richest country in the world, every person should have access to paid sick leave and healthcare they can afford. It’s basic human dignity.”

Appearing on Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchor Boris Sanchez asked Andrews if she thinks Graham’s “lift yourself up by the bootstraps” messaging will “appeal to voters” in the state.

The Democratic candidate responded, “So what she said there was that her healthcare plan is you should work hard ’til you die.” Andrews went on to cite her experiences “on the front lines of America’s broken healthcare system,” adding, “I believe that we deserve better. I believe that Darline’s parents deserved better.”

She continued, emphasizing that she frequently hears “urgent” healthcare concerns from voters while “Darline is resorting to culture-war topics that have no basis in reality.”

Watch above via CNN.

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