Politics

Lindsey Graham is fighting off an ‘America First’ primary challenge

Published

4 months ago

June 9, 2026

The far right is trying to defeat Sen. Lindsey Graham. He’s burning serious cash to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Spending from his campaign and allied outside groups ahead of Tuesday’s primary has already topped $18 million, according to an AdImpact analysis — an eye-popping sum in the relatively small state, and a sign that Graham is taking seriously the primary challenge from businessman Mark Lynch as he seeks to avoid a runoff election.

Graham allies including a pro-cryptocurrency organization, an outside group closely aligned with GOP Senate leadership, and a super PAC that has not yet been required to make its donor list public have combined to dump millions into the race on Graham’s behalf.

Lynch has held his own, mostly self-funding his campaign with $5 million of his retirement savings. He is running hard to Graham’s right, setting up a proxy test of whether the “America First” GOP base views President Donald Trump’s recent interventionist turn with some skepticism even as they continue to support the president. Core to his message is an attack on the senator’s long history in Washington, including his past support of amnesty for undocumented immigrants — and his stridently interventionist foreign policy, including his vocal support for Trump’s war in Iran. Lynch’s campaign ads feature clips of Graham from his 2016 presidential bid calling Trump a “bigot” and praising former President Joe Biden.

Lynch’s campaign has also attracted the support of some of the president’s most prominent MAGA Republican critics, like former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who says the GOP has moved away from Trump’s “America First” platform.

The few public polls of the primary show Graham either narrowly topping or just under the 50 percent threshold he’d need to avoid a two-week runoff. In addition to Lynch, four other Republicans will appear on the ballot, which could further dilute Graham’s share of the vote.

The big spending against a little-known primary opponent has drawn some attention in the closing days of the primary.

“Lindsey is well-funded. You might as well make sure you’ve got all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed to make sure that you win without a runoff,” said Tyson Grinstead, chair of the Richland County GOP and a former Graham campaign adviser. “For Lindsey, I think it’s not outside the norm, especially in Lindsey dollars.”

The matchup between the longtime senator and the Upstate South Carolina businessman is shaping up to be a test of what “America First” means and who can claim that mantle in the Republican Party: close allies of the president like Graham, or those who are the staunchest adherents to MAGA’s original values, like Lynch.

Anti-interventionism was a core tenant of Trump’s meteoric rise that helped him squash more hawkish Republicans, including Graham, to win the White House in 2016. But now, more than 100 days into a conflict with Iran, the president has aligned himself with Graham’s hardline approach to foreign policy — a complete reversal of his perennial campaign promise to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars.

Trump has backed Graham’s reelection bid, but several anti-interventionist Republicans have come out in support of Lynch in the closing days of the campaign, painting Graham as an avatar of establishment support for U.S. military intervention.

Greene, a former Trump acolyte who broke with the president over voting to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and the war in Iran, posted a long message supporting Lynch and slamming Graham as an “America Last warmonger.” Joe Kent, who left his Trump administration post in March because of the Iran war, posted a similar endorsement message a few days prior.

“All the double dealing, all the lies, all the selling out the country to foreign powers — now [Graham] faces the humiliation of being forced into a runoff,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, told Blue Light News.

Graham is still seen as a heavy favorite to hold the seat. He has been sent back to the Senate three times since he first won in 2002, warding off a primary challenge from the right each time. He’s a fixture of both Palmetto State and national Republican politics, and has successfully rekindled a close alliance with Trump amidst their long-running on-again, off-again relationship.

Regardless of whether he wins outright or has to keep running for two weeks, Graham is still expected to defeat Lynch. But the viability of Lynch’s challenge so far reveals yet another fissure between a faction of MAGA and the Republican establishment that has been remade in Trump’s image.

“I take everything seriously when it comes to representing the people of South Carolina, including my primary,” Graham said in a statement to Blue Light News.

The senator has long been a prolific fundraiser. He amassed the single biggest war chest of any Republican running this cycle and had just over $4 million cash on hand as of late May, despite the likelihood that he will not face a competitive general election. And he’s no stranger to spending big to ward off a primary challenge. In 2014, Graham spent $8.5 million to overcome a crowded primary field that became a test to prove his conservative credentials. And he spent nearly $100 million in 2020, successfully dispatching Democrat Jaime Harrison in the general election by 10 points in the deep-red state, even as Harrison outspent him.

But more important than money in deep-red South Carolina, he has firm backing from the president, who has stuck with Graham even as cracks emerge in his home state support — and in spite of their occasional splits.

Trump swooped in to boost Graham with a tele-rally on the eve of Election Day.

“He’s outstanding. He’s been at my side for a long time. We fought each other initially a long time ago,” Trump said Monday. “But after that fight was over, we were best of friends, and he’s helped me as much as anybody in the Senate.”

In encouraging Republicans to vote for Graham, Trump also tacitly acknowledged the challenge Lynch poses. “We don’t want any surprises, we don’t want any bad things to happen. Elections, you never know, so we have to be very careful,” he said.

Lynch’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview. His spokesperson and adviser Noel Fritsch said that if the campaign can push Graham into a runoff, it would be “a huge shock to the system” in South Carolina because Graham has won easily in the past.

Lynch’s platform is centered around spending money domestically rather than overseas, and he has spent significant time on the stump and on far-right media outlets hammering Graham’s record as more “Washington-first” than “America First.” He’s blasted Graham for his support of Trump’s war in Iran, in particular.

While Lynch casts himself as a strong supporter of Trump and his MAGA movement, Fritsch brushed aside concerns that the president’s endorsement of Graham will be insurmountable in the Republican primary.

“Everybody that we’re talking to is like, ‘what’s going on with his endorsements?’ There’s a couple of folks out there who are kind of like, ‘I’ll do whatever Trump says,’ but most of the folks are just like, ‘What is going on? This is not the Trump that we knew or voted for over and over again,’ Which, by the way, is what Mr. Mark Lynch did.”

Lynch’s campaign faces an uphill battle against a well-funded incumbent with deep ties to the Republican Party in Columbia and Washington. Graham’s campaign has spent $13 million alone on advertising, several million of which have been in negative ads hitting Lynch over his complicated past with drug use and arrest on charges of cocaine trafficking in 1984.

“Mark’s been very open about the fact that in the early 80s … he had some issues with substance abuse, specifically cocaine. He’s been a teetotaling, stone-cold sober, Southern Baptist guy for over four decades since then,” Fritsch said.

Observers and allies say that others have tried this kind of primary challenge with Graham before — and it hasn’t worked.

“Lindsey has only lost one county in any primary race in his career for the Senate, and that was — gosh, that was 2008,” Grinstead, the Richland GOP chair, said.

“The same people who are always against Lindsey are against Lindsey this time,” he added. “I’m not seeing a lot of new folks who are on the conservative side of the grassroots establishment starting to leave Lindsey.”

Andrew Howard and William Steakin contributed to this report.

Politics

Trump will hit several deep-red states in October campaign blitz

Published

10 hours ago

September 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is hitting the campaign trail — and a series of his stops are in deep-red states he comfortably won in 2024.

Trump will campaign in Iowa, Florida, Texas and Alaska ahead of Election Day, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who were granted anonymity to discuss not-yet-public plans. That’s on top of his scheduled stop in Oklahoma next week, as the RNC announced, and his visit to Alabama, which POLITICO first reported.

While the president has indicated a desire to stump for Ken Paxton in Texas and Dan Sullivan in Alaska, the addition of Iowa and Florida to his campaign schedule signals an expanded focus on red states as Republicans grow increasingly nervous heading into the final stretch of the midterms.

The president is also preparing to hold campaign rallies in more traditional battleground states starting Oct. 3, according to one of the people.

His travel schedule is a clear signal that the GOP is seeking to shore up their own territory — as rising voter anger over sky-high costs and mass deportations creates new openings for Democrats. The six confirmed states have highly watched Senate, House and gubernatorial contests this November, but they are also ones Trump won by double digits two years ago.

“While Democrats squabble over the last two cents their party has to spare, the president is barnstorming the country, energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in key races and beyond,” said Natalie Baldassarre, an RNC spokesperson.

“We have the resources to spend, and Republicans are full steam ahead to protect and expand our majorities,” Baldassarre added.

The White House referred Blue Light News to the RNC.

Vice President JD Vance will also ramp up his campaign travel ahead of Election Day. He and Trump are expected to make stops in Ohio to boost GOP Sen. Jon Husted, as POLITICO has reported. Husted is trailing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in internal GOP polling by top Senate Republicans, according to two other people with direct knowledge of the matter, granted anonymity to share private details.

Trump’s latest midterms travel swing will first start with Oklahoma and Alabama — two deep-red states where Democrats haven’t made the same inroads in statewide elections as they have in other traditionally conservative states like Texas, Alaska and Kansas.

But his Alabama event could help drive turnout and shore up support for GOP state Rep. Rhett Marques, who is in a competitive race with Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures in the state’s 2nd District, despite Republicans’ effort to redraw the seat in their favor.

Republicans in Iowa, Texas and Alaska are growing increasingly alarmed about how close their Senate races are amid fallout from the Iran war and other policy moves by Trump. Florida Republicans have become uneasy about their own firewall, with some polling showing statewide races inside the margin of error.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP Senate nominee in Iowa, recently publicly broke with Trump over the Iran war, as did several other Iowa House Republicans.

“The bigger question on everything continues to be, whatever you do, will there be enough time. I just don’t know,” said one person close to the White House. “We’re teetering on the edge of it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Alec Hernández contributed to this report.

Politics

Poll: A crack is emerging in Trump’s coalition over deportations

Published

17 hours ago

September 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign is running into resistance within his own voter coalition, as more and more Republican candidates publicly break with him ahead of the November election.

New results from The POLITICO Poll help explain why: Non-MAGA Trump voters are more than twice as likely as self-identified MAGA Trump voters to say his mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, 31% to 14%. While roughly similar shares of both groups believe Trump’s campaign is about right, the MAGA base wants him to go even further: 36% of MAGA Trump voters say his campaign is not aggressive enough, compared with 23% of non-MAGA Trump voters.

Meanwhile, support across Trump’s entire voter coalition falls when it comes to deporting people beyond the most violent offenders, such as those with minor criminal offenses or who have been living in the U.S. for years without legal status.

The new survey, conducted by London-based Public First, reveals how Trump’s immigration agenda — which has long been one of his signature political issues and a reliable GOP rallying point — has divided the very coalition that helped power his two presidential wins. The president’s MAGA loyalists are still more inclined than other Trump voters to support a tougher immigration posture, but there are clear limits to how far voters want the administration to go.

Those intraparty tensions burst into public view this month, when Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) released a campaign ad pushing back against Trump’s deportation agenda, saying some of his efforts “have gone too far” and that Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024 “feel betrayed.” It was a remarkable break from a sitting GOP lawmaker over one of the president’s defining policies, as Democrats have locked in on Florida’s 27th District as a prime target in their bid to flip the House.

Salazar’s public rift with Trump exemplifies the fears Republicans had been privately warning about for months: that the president’s immigration enforcement — marked last year by high-profile, flashy raids that rippled through communities — was alienating moderate Republicans, independents, young voters and Latinos who support border security and immigration enforcement in theory but dislike how it is being carried out.

And as the party stares down a difficult midterm landscape, including in districts and states Trump won in 2024, other GOP candidates followed Salazar’s lead, increasingly putting distance between themselves and the administration on key issues like immigration — despite having voted last year to approve billions of dollars for border security and immigration enforcement. On Wednesday, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), whose race has tightened against Democrat Adam Hamilton, also softened his stance on Immigration and Customs Enforcement as raids in southwest Kansas prompt temporary business closures and schools.

“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement. Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” he wrote on social media, adding that he’s been in direct contact with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

The Blue Light News Poll finds most Americans — including majorities of both MAGA and non-MAGA Trump voters — believe people convicted of serious violent or sexual offenses should be prioritized for deportation, underscoring broad agreement on a more targeted approach to enforcement.

The survey also finds that few people — including among both MAGA and non-MAGA Trump voters — prioritized targeting other groups for deportations. Less than a quarter of each group say people convicted of minor criminal offenses should be prioritized. Support falls further when voters are asked about prioritizing people who have lived in the U.S. for several years without legal status or people with dependent children in the U.S.

“A lot of it has to do with how you talk about it. They don’t want amnesty for people who have broken the law. They want everybody to do it the right way,” said a person close to the White House granted anonymity to discuss how Republicans are viewing the issue. “They understand that some people might be law-abiding, hard working.”

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said Blue Light News is “skewing data to paint a false narrative.”

“The American people sent President Trump back to the White House to stop the invasion of our country and deport the millions of illegal aliens Biden and Democrats allowed into the country. The president is delivering on his promises,” she said.

Days after releasing the ad, Salazar said she had a “fantastic conversation” with Trump and urged him to protect the political “fortune” he had brought to the Republican Party on immigration. She also told CBS last weekend that Trump and the average American understand “the between the narco and the nanny and the gangster and the gardener.”

She said the administration should distinguish between criminals and unauthorized immigrants working in crucial industries such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and health care.

That distinction is also reflected in The Blue Light News Poll. Both MAGA and non-MAGA Trump voters are open to maintaining or increasing the number of people coming into the U.S. to work in sectors facing labor shortages, such as health care or agriculture. Sixty-five percent of MAGA Trump voters and 69% non-MAGA Trump voters say they want to see about the same number — or more — people coming to the U.S. to work in those sectors facing labor shortages.

“Trump 2.0 that took over in January 2025 completely misread what voters were telling him and Joe Biden during 2024, which was that they wanted to see more order and security over the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Matt Barreto, who conducted polling for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign. “Instead, what Trump told Americans was, ‘Now I’m going to go hunt down immigrants who are just working and contributing to America.’ And there was extremely limited support for that.”

Past POLITICO polling on immigration has shown that the Trump administration has been unable to reverse the damage with voters on the issue. Last fall, battleground Republicans were already expressing concern about the administration’s immigration tactics. Those concerns intensified in the months that followed, while negative voter sentiment hardened by April after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The Trump administration, in the wake of bipartisan outrage, softened its rhetoric and abandoned flashy raids that often devolved into clashes with protesters. The president also installed Mullin, who moved quickly to repair relationships on Capitol Hill and keep the Department of Homeland Security out of the headlines.

But Mullin is also facing pressure from MAGA critics and immigration hardliners who think he’s not committed to the president’s vow to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants. In an effort to shore up his support with that contingent, top administration accounts, including Mullin’s, have ramped up posts about ICE, arrests statistics and tough talk about the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.