Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham won his reelection bid in South Carolina on Tuesday night, beating back a strong challenge from Democrat Jaime Harrison.
Some polling in the campaign’s closing weeks showed a head-to-head race, and Harrison’s massive fundraising broke records. But Graham mustered support across South Carolina, where all statewide offices are held by Republicans and support for President Donald Trump remains strong.
Harrison portrayed Graham as too willing to acquiesce to Trump. Graham maintained that he felt it in his constituents' best interests that he align with the president, who has remained popular in South Carolina.
If Harrison had won, South Carolina would have been the first state in U.S. history to be simultaneously represented by two Black senators.
Graham, one of the Senate’s highest-profile Republicans, ended his campaign by making continual TV pleas for money and support. Graham recently led the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, to the nation’s highest court.
“I’m in demand right now, our campaign — ‘how’d you do it, what are you doing, could you help us?’” Graham told The Associated Press on Saturday, of other Republicans asking him how he was able to raise his own fundraising toward Harrison’s levels. “So when this is over, we’re going to sit down and figure out how we did it ourselves.”
More than 1 million people had already cast their ballots in a race that drew sums of money unheard of in South Carolina politics. In October, Harrison became the first U.S. Senate candidate to raise more than $100 million, continuing to bring in contributions in the weeks since.
On Saturday, Graham told the AP that he had “passed the $100 million” mark in terms of his own fundraising, chuckling in disbelief at the monetary demand his race had necessitated and the fact he’d been able to meet it.
Graham “was a senator that I had some respect for, because I thought, at the end of the day, he would do what was in the best interest of the nation and the people of South Carolina,” Harrison said Sunday as he campaigned. “But I was disappointed. I think many of you were disappointed as well.”
Graham, who has won his previous general election contests by double-digit margins, admits the race with Harrison has been more challenging than he expected.
Part of Harrison’s argument against Graham has also been what he’s portrayed as the senator’s malleability, an overeagerness to do President Trump’s bidding despite having harshly criticized him during the 2016 campaign.
