Lindsey Graham, a divided South Carolina and the Mike Huckabee endorsement
Politics in the Palmetto State has the very “red” state divided in the Republican Party when it comes to incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham, so much so that several challengers have come out to oppose Graham and grassroot organizations have popped up across the state in opposition to the Seneca resident.
However, not everyone is opposed to Graham and the closer the 2014 election gets, more supporters are coming out of the woodwork.
One Graham supporter is Henry McMaster, a former S.C. attorney general and previous chairman of the S.C. Republican Party. McMaster wrote the following in support of Graham, “A place like this (SC) produces remarkable leaders in all fields: business, law, medicine, sports, music, literature, the military and politics. Lindsey Graham is one of these.
“Nobody questions his integrity, ability or dedication to South Carolina. And everyone appreciates good humor, good manners and a positive outlook. Ronald Reagan set the standard; Lindsey Graham lives it.”
While many question Graham’s conservatism, calling him the consummate RINO (Republican in name only), McMaster gladly points out that Graham won top recognition from virtually every national conservative organization, from the National Rifle Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Taxpayers Union.
In addition to McMaster, Graham also recently received accolades and an endorsement from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee, in a recent SC Conservative Action Alliance ad, Huckabee calls on the public to thank Graham for his leadership on national defense and for being a “conservative champion of peace through strength.”
The opposition to Graham, mostly Tea Party, small government types, considers Graham to be not-so-conservative.
As Dianne Belsom, president of the Laurens County Tea Party and Kevin Thomas, Fairfield County GOP chairman write, “Lindsey Graham showed himself to be out of touch by trying to drag our country into a war with Syria, and he supported arming Al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood revolutionaries in Syria.
“Lindsey Graham is also part of the “Gang of 8,” trying to shove a mammoth, 1,200-page “immigration” bill on us, which includes amnesty for illegals. And most recently, when House Republicans courageously sent legislation to the Senate that funded all the government except Obamacare, Lindsey Graham did all he could to undercut this strategy.”
His support of Supreme Court justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the National Security Agency (NSA) , consistently voting to raise the debt ceiling, co-sponsoring the anti-jobs “Cap and Trade” environmental legislation, and his voting for TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), clearly not an exhaustive list, have many small government conservatives in SC and across the country opposed to the Graham reelection.
November 2104 will be very interesting in South Carolina.
“I haven’t endorsed Lindsay. Last year, I voiced an ad thanking him for support of Israel. It was not an endorsement for reelection. I don’t plan to endorse anyone in SC Senate race in the primary. Will certainly help in the general. Obviously, LIndsay’s people are using the TY ad and treating it like an endorsement, but neither the PAC nor I personally have endorsed in SC.” — Mike Huckabee