Paul Dans, the former director of the conservative Project 2025, is launching a bid to unseat Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, setting up an explosive MAGA showdown in the Palmetto State.
Graham has held the Senate seat in South Carolina since 2003, and while it is considered safely Republican in 2026, it could be an extremely competitive primary.
Graham has tried to closely align himself with President Donald Trump ever since doing an about-face when Trump rose to power in 2016. But he has faced considerable wrath from some of the president’s base as he remains a longtime defense hawk known for supporting military intervention overseas.
Dans’ bid is the latest in a series of GOP primary civil wars erupting across the country. The senator is already facing a primary challenge from former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, who has also aligned himself with Trump.
Ahead of officially launching his bid on Wednesday in Charlestown, Dans told the Associated Press that the president’s effort to cut federal programs and the federal workforce was what he had hoped for as the chief architect of Project 2025, but he said there is “more work to do.”
In a separate interview with South Carolina’s The Post and Courier, Dans blasted Graham as a “warmonger” who is out of touch with everyday South Carolinians.
“We have seen where the swamp is, and the swamp is the United States Senate,” he said. “And the top swamp critter is none other than Lindsey Graham.”
Dans’ Project 2025 is a conservative blueprint to reshape the federal government that became a centerpiece of Democrats’ attacks in the 2024 election. Trump attempted to distance himself from it on the campaign trail, but he has since implemented aspects of it since taking office.
As Graham has faced down threats from the right and challengers trying to prove they will be more closely aligned to the president, he moved quickly to secure the president’s support for his reelection bid.
Trump endorsed Graham in a Truth Social post in March, where he praised the senator as a “wonderful friend” and claimed he won’t let the people of South Carolina down. The endorsement remains pinned at the top of the senator’s X page.
Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita also joined Graham’s campaign as a senior advisor.
“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” LaCivita said in a statement in reaction to Dans’ bid.
“Like everything Paul Dans starts, this too will end prematurely,” LaCivita added.
However, some of Trump’s biggest supporters in the state have long voiced their opposition to Graham.
When the senator attended Trump’s election night party when he won the GOP South Carolina presidential primary back in early 2024, he was memorably booed by the president’s supporters in the crowd. He faced similar booing from the MAGA crowd when he spoke at a Trump rally in July 2023 in Pickens, South Carolina, as the president looked to mount his political comeback.
In 2020, Graham managed to hold onto his seat in the deeply red state, winning the election by more than ten points despite his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, raising tens of millions in a longshot effort to oust him.
The expectedly heated South Carolina GOP Senate primary comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also launched a bid to unseat longtime Republican Senator John Cornyn in the Lone Star State, signaling it’s going to be a brutal primary season for Republicans as they look to hold onto the Senate majority next November.
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