In June 2019, longtime US Sen. Lindsay Graham was coming off a wave of momentum. Graham had gained favor with many of his conservative detractors within his own party. Graham had finished a fierce well-known defense of embattled Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Graham had seemingly successfully converted from an “anti-Trump” crusader into a close ally of President Trump, and the newly-mounted powerful Senate Judiciary Chairman.

After reading the tea leaves, many well-known possible Republican challengers to the senior senator decided that this was not the time to take on Graham and chose against moving forward with a campaign. Then came Michael LaPierre of Pickens.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC

LaPierre, an author, entrepreneur and former Fortune 500 executive, entered the race against Graham after concluding that Graham had left South Carolinians behind. A criticism LaPierre has only ramped up further as the June 9th Republican Primary gets closer.

“He is a 3-term Senator who feels that he is OWED this re-election,” LaPierre states on his website. “He believes that he can’t be touched in this race. Why should he have to listen to his constituents and work hard for the primary nomination? He doesn’t think that he needs to.”

Graham, LaPierre and two other Republicans, Dwayne “Duke” Buckner of Walterboro and Joe Reynolds of North Charleston, are vying in the primary. If no candidate receives more than 50% the race will head to a runoff two weeks later on June 23rd.

Democrat Jamie Harrison of Columbia and Constitutional Party candidate Bill Bledsoe of Spartanburg are already awaiting the primary winner on the general election ballot. The winner of the Libertarian contest between David Weikle of North Augusta and Keenan Wallace Dunham of Myrtle Beach will join the other candidates on the November ballot.

LaPierre now sees where Graham has reminded citizens yet again why the senator can’t be trusted to accomplish the important things in Washington. Recently, after more evidence that showed the Obama/Biden administration illegally spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign, Graham provided more cover for Obama and the Democrats’ 2020 presumptive nominee.

After President Trump called directly on Graham to subpoena Obama and Biden regarding the recently declassified “unmasking” of Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Graham refused, stating “be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.” As if the president had not faced every procedural attack in the arsenal of congressional Democrats.

The recent decisions from Sen. Graham continued a pattern of refusing to address the administration’s concerns over possible illegal activity from political opponents, including the Obama administration, before and after the 2016 presidential election. In fact, Graham just voted to extend the very same FISA abuse that was used against the Trump administration.

U.S. Senate candidate

Those charges are in conjunction with the alleged corruption from Vice President Biden in Ukraine as President Trump’s impeachment proceedings rambled on. Graham told The Hill in January that “Nobody has done an investigation anywhere near like the Mueller investigation of the Bidens, and I think they should. And when this is over the Congress will do it, if we can’t have an outside entity do it.”

Graham refused to use the powerful committee he chairs and passed those responsibilities on to other committees who recently voted to issue subpoenas to important figures in the case.

LaPierre began the race with little name identification and the COVID-19 pandemic during peak campaign season didn’t do much to help. Despite the challenges of not being able to campaign face-to-face with voters and being able to raise money on the ground, the first-time candidate has adapted and says he’s hit his stride on the trail:

“Enhanced social media, radio ads, television ads, radio talk shows, billboards, in restaurant television ads, speaking events, along with some other creative forms of communication. We have a full court press on right now! However, the most effective form of communication is the EXPLOSION of ‘word of mouth’ advertising. We currently have a ‘wave’ of political momentum happening across our state that will not be stopped. It is exciting to see God work in this fashion!”

Indeed, the graduate of the Ivy League’s Brown University and Clemson has become a regular on talk radio in the vote-rich conservative upstate. Throughout the campaign, LaPierre’s strategy has been to pit his down-the-line conservatism to Graham’s powerful insider status in Washington. Recently though, LaPierre has honed his message into one phrase: “Lindsey: Too liberal, Too long.”

LaPierre, an evangelical who runs and is involved with several Christian organizations, has extensively compared his positions to Graham’s, including being the strongly pro-life candidate between the two:

“We are pro-life. We believe life starts at conception. We must protect the life of a child and I will support each and every bill that serves that goal,” adding on the major landmark Supreme Court abortion decision that “Senator Graham says he is pro-life but does not think that Roe v. Wade should be overturned ‘unless there is a good reason.’ He believes that precedence should stand.”

To that end, one of the major issues that separates Graham from South Carolina conservatives has been that Graham has been one of the very few Republican senators to support nearly all of former President Obama’s appointees. That list includes pro-abortion Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, as well as Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

LaPierre has also differentiated himself on “red flag” gun laws, opposing “Grahamnesty” immigration reform, differing on a “Carbon Tax” on consumers and supporting term limits among a whole host of issues. In ratings from the American Conservative Union, Freedomworks and Conservative Review, Graham has consistently ranked among the worst in the senate Republican Caucus.

With the final push in motion, LaPierre has this final plea:

“As free South Carolinians and free Americans, we are yearning to be free once again and to be able to live out and exercise the freedoms expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.’We the People’ see the entrenched establishment, professional political operatives, and the political elite as the problem and not part of the solution.”

Polls for the June 9th Republican Primary are open from 7am — 7pm with in-person absentee voting at your county elections office.

Preston Baines is a political analyst and can be reached at @prestonbaines on Twitter and prestonbaines@gmail.com.

Please visit our sponsors and donate to support The Standard on this page.