Two South Carolina former governors, David Beasley and Jim Hodges, a Republican and Democrat respectively, have come together for a rare joint endorsement for Democrat Annie Andrews’s Senate bid.

Andrews, a pediatrician, is looking to flip the seat, currently held by Darline Graham, the Trump-endorsed sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, in what has become an unexpectedly competitive race for the usually reliably red state.

“This country is too divided, and the political rhetoric has gotten way, way out of hand,” says Beasley in the former governors’ joint endorsement video. “That’s why we’re coming together to support Annie Andrews,” says Hodges.

The two former governors, who once faced off against each other, acknowledged that while they don’t agree on everything, they agree on Andrews as the best candidate to put South Carolina first.

“Annie understands that leadership isn’t about making people angrier. Well, it’s about making things better,” says Beasley. “She’s willing to put people ahead of politics,” adds Hodges.

Beasley adds: “We may have served as your governor from different political parties. But we agree South Carolina deserves better than more of the same political fighting.”

Last week, Beasley, a Democrat-turned-Republican who served as governor of the Palmetto State from 1995 to 1999 before losing re-election to Hodges, wrote an opinion piece for the Charleston-based Post and Courier paper, lamenting the state of the party under Donald Trump.

“What has happened in the Republican Party today is just heartbreaking,” he wrote. “Too many in the party have gone along with winning by tearing others down and pitting people and communities against one another … I have yet to see President Donald Trump, as leader of the Republican Party, show compassion or even respect to someone or some group that he disagrees with.

“The vitriol is toxic, and it is undeniably feeding into the hearts, minds and souls of Americans.”

It is “not the party that I knew, and it is not the party that I consider myself a member of”, he added.

Recent polling has indicated that Graham still holds a lead over Andrews, though the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has moved the state in the Democrats’ direction, from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican”.

And it isn’t the only time in this year’s midterms that prominent Republicans have crossed party lines and backed Democrats. In usually deep-red Kansas, two former Republican governors, Bill Graves and Mike Hayden, endorsed the Democratic candidate, Adam Hamilton, in his bid to unseat the Republican incumbent, senator Roger Marshall.

In Texas, another unexpected Senate battleground, the Democratic nominee, James Talarico, has received public endorsements from more than 20 Republican leaders, as well as members of the Bush family, over Republican Ken Paxton. There have also been cross-party endorsements from Republicans for Democrats in Georgia, Montana, Florida, Virginia, Illinois and South Dakota.