How can I refute this? Is there a way to bring it up with a higher up?

Usually there isn’t much back and forth, and there is no one really to report to when you disagree with how much partial credit you should get. Hopefully you can do better in the rest of the class and then decide not to take this prof again.

Edited to add that there is no person “higher up” who should be overturning a professor’s decision about partial credit on an assignment.