SOUTH CAROLINA, June 10, 2014– The Palmetto state has spoken, and they have chosen Lindsey Graham. Today’s South Carolina GOP primary was an upset for many Tea Party grassroots activists and leaders hoping to force Graham into a runoff. With >70% of precincts reporting, the race has been called for Senator Lindsey Graham.
L. Graham (i) 58.6%-125,128 (WINNER)
L. Bright 13.6%-28,954
R. Cash 7.6%-16,289
D. Bowers 7.5%-15,973
N. Mace 6.3%-13,534
B. Connor 5.3%-11,364
B. Dunn 1.0%-2,222
SOUTH CAROLINA, June 10, 2014– As they head to the polls, thick, humid air fills the lungs of Palmetto State GOP primary voters today. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham (R) will be able to avoid a run-off. According to State Senator Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg), Graham’s most serious challenger, Graham has been quietly courting Democrats to vote for him in today’s primary.
Senator Lee Bright asked BenSwann.com, “If his advertisements say he is a conservative, then why does he know he can call on liberals when he could be in trouble?”
Last night, a press release sent out by the Spartanburg lawmaker claims Graham has been courting Democrats while no one is looking.
It reads, in part:
Team Graham is running a quiet campaign to woo Democrats. Publicly, Graham’s Campaign is saturating South Carolina TV stations touting his supposed “conservative credentials” – yet he is simultaneously using web ads and social media to target Democrats to remind them they can vote for him in the Republican primary.
One of Graham’s ads (pictured below) quietly reminds voters that they can cast their vote for him even if they are not Republicans.
Many predicted Graham would try such a tactic, and they tried to stop him in court. However, through illegal maneuvers, the state executive committee had the lawsuit dropped.
All running to the right of him, Graham has drawn multiple challengers. Businesswoman Nancy Mace, businessman Richard Cash, veteran and lawyer Bill Connor and State Senator Lee Bright have drawn the most serious attention. However, their efforts may not be enough to unseat one of Washington’s most powerful senators.
The latest poll performed by Clemson University shows Graham at 49%. Meanwhile, Bright, Cash, Connor and Mace garner a collective 15%, of which Bright takes 9%. According to the same poll, in 2013, only 31% of Republicans planned to re-elect Graham. As of the beginning of this month, that number jumped to 46%.
If Graham is not successful in capturing 50% of the vote today, he will be forced into a runoff with the contender who captures the second highest percentage. As of now, that challenger seems to be Bright.
The satirical news program “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Monday night tried to find the most conservative candidate in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate primary race.
Appearing on the segment were GOP challenger Bill Connor, former U.S. Representative Bob Inglis, who is backing incumbent Lindsey Graham and a pair of Bright supporters, Jeff and Larry.
The final decision in the conservative-off was based on answers to a Rorschach test. Connor’s answer of “patriotism” was bested by a Bright supporter’s reply of “Chick-fil-A.”
Graham was eliminated early from the race after Inglis was the only person without a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his pocket. He countered that he could look it up on his iPhone.
Graham is facing four other GOP challengers who weren’t included in the bit: Det Bowers, Richard Cash, Benjamin Dunn and Nancy Mace.
A recent poll by Wenzel Strategies is showing Graham below the 50 percent mark which will trigger a run off in South Carolina.
Watch the full segment here.
Upstate Senator Lee Bright picked up another impressive Congressional endorsement Wednesday, as Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie officially threw his support behind Bright’s campaign.
“Today I am happy to announce my endorsement of Lee Bright for United States Senate,” said Congressman Massie in a statement, adding, “There are several good candidates challenging the status quo in this race, but it is time for conservatives to rally around the clear leader in this battle. It’s time to make a change, and we must unite against the Washington establishment if we are to prevail. I am certain that Lee Bright will stand strong for our Constitution in Washington, because he has a proven record of defending liberty in the South Carolina Senate. Based on my conversations with him, I am confident that Lee Bright will be a steadfast ally of true conservatives like Senator Rand Paul, Senator Mike Lee and Senator Ted Cruz. He has my full support.”
Bright welcomes this strong support, saying, “Our campaign is honored to have such a strong endorsement from Congressman Massie. He represents the positive change that started coming to Washington over the past few elections. I can’t wait to get up there and join Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee in moving that change forward in the Senate. I know Thomas Massie will be doing the same in the House. These are trying times for so many Americans, and Washington is the main reason why.”
Bright went on to say, “It’s obvious that Lindsey Graham has no clue what our government is doing to our citizens, and he has no idea the genius and leadership being shown by Senators Cruz, Lee and Paul. That’s why South Carolinians are going to retire him this year.”
Bright has dominated polls and endorsements among a crowded field of challengers to Lindsey Graham for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate.
Note: This is a press release from Team Bright.
COLUMBIA, March 14, 2014– On Thursday afternoon the South Carolina senate sent a bill over to the state house which would authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within the state, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.
Introduced by Sen. Kevin Bryant along with cosponsors Sen. Lee Bright(R) (challenging US Senator Lindsey Graham) and Sen. Tom Davis(R), S.0839 passed by a 42-0 unanimous vote this week.
The bill reads, in part, “It is lawful for an individual to cultivate, produce, or otherwise grow industrial hemp in this State to be used for any lawful purpose, including, but not limited to, the manufacture of industrial hemp products, and scientific, agricultural, or other research related to other lawful applications for industrial hemp.”
Experts suggest that the U.S. market for hemp is around $500 million per year. They count as many as 25,000 uses for industrial hemp, including food, cosmetics, plastics and bio-fuel. The U.S. is currently the world’s #1 importer of hemp fiber for various products, with China and Canada acting as the top two exporters in the world.
This month, President Barack Obama signed a new farm bill into law, which included a provision allowing a handful of states to begin limited research programs growing hemp. The new “hemp amendment”
…allows State Agriculture Departments, colleges and universities to grow hemp, defined as the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis, for academic or agricultural research purposes, but it applies only to states where industrial hemp farming is already legal under state law.
Three states – Colorado, Oregon and Vermont – have already passed similar measures. Farmers in SE Colorado started harvesting the plant in 2013, effectively nullifying federal restrictions on such agricultural activities.
S.0839 now moves on to the state house where it will first be assigned to a committee for consideration before the full house has an opportunity to send the bill to Gov. Haley’s desk for a signature.
Yesterday the Senate voted to extend the debt ceiling, and re-open the government. Along with the deal was a $3 billion earmark from Senate Minority Leader McConnell. So much for a clean continuing resolution (CR).
The Senate bill passed with a strong majority, having a 31 vote margin (81-18). In total, 27 Republicans voted in favor of the bill. In the House the bill passed (285-144). In total, 87 republicans joined all democrats and voted in favor of the bill.
So, what about South Carolina? Of the 6 Representatives only one voted in favor of the deal (Rep. Clyburn-D). In the Senate, Tim Scott (R) voted “no”. However, Scott’s colleague, Lindsey Graham, voted with South Carolina’s only democratic delegate in favor of the deal.
Graham made no apologies. On Facebook Graham told supporters that they did all they could do. He complains that Congress got bailed out, nothing was done to cut spending, etc. However, none of the supposed problems Graham had with the deal kept him from voting in favor of it. Hundreds of Facebook users attacked the Senator for his vote.
Graham faces his most serious challenge to re-election this year than ever before. Two serious challengers have risen to the occasion. Businesswoman Nancy Mace and State Senator Lee Bright have thrown their names in the ring. Graham still leads in the polls. Mace follows Senator Bright who is in second place, and was just endorsed by the National Republican Liberty Caucus.
Today the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Lee Bright against Sen. Lindsey Graham. This is the first time a major national organization has backed a specific opponent of Lindsey Graham’s in this race. Sources told Benswann.com that the endorsement was unanimous after a detailed consideration process, candidate survey, and direct Q&A with the candidate.
According to the RLC, the other Graham opponents declined to fill out surveys to go on the record about specific issues with the RLC (including Nancy Mace and Richard Cash).
The RLC recently backed Mark Sanford and was an early backer of Ted Cruz in Texas and Mike Lee in Utah during their primaries.
The endorsement will be announced in a series of press conferences across South Carolina on Wednesday.
The press conferences will be held in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston.
Lee Bright will be speaking at each and will be available to talk to voters and the press.
According to Fitsnews.com, “U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s campaign is said to be in “meltdown mode” based on internal polling done in the wake of his conflicted votes on Obamacare last week.”
Clemson political science professor Dave Woodard conducted a poll recently and found only 31 percent of South Carolina’s Republicans plan to vote to re-elect Graham, regardless of who else was in the race.
Last week the Greenville County GOP, the largest and most influential party in the state, joined other county parties to officially censure Senator Graham. The censure resolution cites 29 points where Graham is said to have strayed from or violated the GOP platform, sided with Democrats, and openly ridiculed members of his own party.
*The Republican Liberty Caucus is a nationwide grassroots organization founded in 1991 to advance free markets, limited government, and individual liberty within the Republican Party. More about the RLC can be found at www.rlc.org. More about the South Carolina chapter can be found at www.rlcsc.org. Joshua Cook, the author of this article is the Chairman of the RLC Greenville Chapter.
The heat has been turned on for Lindsey Graham, and he is feeling it. The embattled republican senator from South Carolina is relying on misleading semantics to deceive voters into reelecting him over his two serious challengers, state senator Lee Bright (R) and businesswoman Nancy Mace.
The Senate voted last week on whether or not to defund Obamacare. The vote for cloture was the last chance republicans had to stop Obamacare in the Senate. All eyes were on the cloture vote. If cloture was achieved republicans would be outnumbered on the final vote to defund Obamacare and Senate democrats would easily end all hope for those wanting Obamacare to end.
Only 19 senators (all republicans) voted no on cloture. Senator Scott, South Carolina’s replacement for Jim DeMint, joined the fight against cloture and voted no. Graham voted in favor of cloture. In total, 79 votes for cloture allowed debate to end and the final vote to take place. All knew that if the final vote was allowed to happen then Obamacare would not be defunded. However, that didn’t stop every republican in the Senate from voting against Obamacare funding on the final vote. This way they could return to their constituents, as Lindsey Graham did, and tell voters that they voted to defund Obamacare.
In the letter above we see a US Senator deceiving voters. Graham was not alone. Republican senators around the country played the same card in emails and social media updates telling their constituents they voted to stop Obamacare, but there was nothing more they could do. This was certainly not the case. By voting for cloture, the majority of republicans allowed for the funding of Obamacare.
On Friday, Joshua Cook of BenSwann.com asked US Senate candidate Lee Bright a few questions via Google Hangout about the UN Small Arms Treaty and the UN. In the interview, Bright discussed recent attacks on the Second and Fourth Amendments, the UN and primary opponent Lindsey Graham.
Regarding the recent NSA and DOJ revelations, he echoed an opinion whose popularity transcends party lines when he said “the Fourth Amendment is absolutely under assault right now,” going on to say “we’re definitely not being granted our due process rights. We’re not criminals, so they have no right to that information.”
He emphasized the need for Americans to protect their gun rights, not limiting his discussion to simple self defense issues. “The Second Amendment defends all the rest … our founders intended those rights to protect us from a tyrannical government,” he said, adding that though Republican willingness to “acquiesce to the demands of the Democrats on gun rights is very disturbing,” he would act as an uncompromisingly pro-Second Amendment Senator.
The biggest gun control battle being waged at the moment, though, isn’t a traditional legislative battle at all. It’s a UN Small Arms Treaty supported by Barack Obama, Samantha Power and John Kerry alike, the three people with the strongest ability to subordinate US interests to the international organization. When asked about the treaty, Bright said he would filibuster any such treaty, and supported the idea of a US exit from the UN in general. “I think we can communicate with other nations if need be, and if we’re going to have a global organization, I’d like it to be somewhere else, because I don’t want it trying to micromanage the US or trying to take away our rights.”
Bright also said that he had tried to give Lindsey Graham the benefit of a doubt, but that he had ignored the will of the people, had not been the conservative voice South Carolina wants and needs, and that his actions in Egypt had been the last straw.
Lee Bright is one of Graham’s three conservative challengers in the South Carolina primary. The senator hasn’t been up for re-election since 2008, so this will be his first campaign since the rise of the Tea Party.
