Conservative lawyer Paul Dans is expected to announce an official bid against Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday.
Dans presented his reasons for challenging the 22-year incumbent in an interview with Charleston-based The Post and Courier released Monday. In the interview, Dans criticized Graham — who has the endorsement of President Donald Trump — for changing his tune on the president over the past several years.
“Before he became Trump’s favorite golfing buddy, [Graham] was the number one critic of Trump, he was non-stop anti-Trump, and assailing him,” Dans said in the interview.
“Do people change their stripes?” the candidate went on to ask. “I would submit no, that he ultimately is a snake, and he has his record is towards everything that MAGA is against. He’s the definition of anti-he’s anti-MAGA.”
Dans called Graham a “70-year-old, childless warmonger,” claiming that while the people of South Carolina are “about God, family, and country,” Graham “is about starting World War III.” Graham is known for often taking hawkish foreign policy positions.
Dans is known for his role in leading “Project 2025,” a policy initiative created by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Frequently maligned by the Democrats, Trump ultimately distanced himself from the initiative during his successful reelection run.
Dans, who stepped down from the project in July 2024, joins former Republican South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer as well as multiple long-shot candidates in the Republican primary race against Graham.
South Carolina uses primary runoffs, meaning if no candidate wins a majority of the vote, the top two candidates go on to compete head-to-head.
Trump endorsed Graham for re-election in March. In addition to the president, Graham also has the backing of his fellow Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — term-limited Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and many prominent South Carolina donors, according to The State.
Democrat Annie Andrews, who lost to Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022, is one of five Democratic contenders for the Senate seat.
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