Posted on 06/10/2014 9:24:49 PM PDT by Steelfish
Sen. Lindsey Graham Wins GOP Nod in South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. - U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham won South Carolina's Republican party outright on Tuesday, defeating six tea party challengers and avoiding a runoff.
Graham, 58, had about 59 percent of the vote in early returns, far more than what was needed to avoid the runoff. State Sen. Lee Bright came in second, with nearly 14 percent.
Aside from Bright, those arrayed against Graham included Columbia pastor Det Bowers, Upstate businessman Richard Cash and Charleston-area businesswoman Nancy Mace, the first female cadet graduate from The Citadel, South Carolina's military college. Orangeburg County attorney Bill Connor and Columbia lawyer Benjamin Dunn were also seeking the nomination.
Graham, who has been in office since 2002, had a hefty fundraising advantage: He has raised more than $12 million since his last re-election bid in 2008, while none of his opponents passed the $1 million mark.
The challengers have hammered away at Graham, saying he's not conservative enough for South Carolina. That didn't matter to Ben Lister, a 48-year-old financial planner from Greenville who voted for the senator.
"I know that some people are saying he should be more conservative, but what does that mean?" Lister asked. "I want a politician who actually thinks about the issues instead of going along with the crowd."
Meanwhile, Graham's fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott won his primary by a wide margin, setting the stage for South Carolina to elect a black person to the U.S. Senate for the first time.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Well, I am happy to see Tim Scott won.
Lee Bright simply failed to be South Carolina’s Chris McDaniel. You can put the loss on him and the idiot voters.
If folks split the vote, that’s what they can expect. Most of the time.
How did we get this catastrophe?
Must have been his Bette Davis Eyes that mesmerized. (I seem to remember he had a picture of the actress on his website a while back and a picture of himself that emphasized his large and heavily lashed eyes.)
We ended up with this because Lindsay didn’t out right attack the tea party like that arrogant SOB Cantor
SC just voted to take it in the behinds from Lindsey Graham. Bet he does not kiss them before he leaves.
Does South Carolina have an open primary?
I’ll guess Lindsey is fairly popular with Blacks and Hispanics, who make up more than 33% of state residents.
By the way, Graham is an excellent and charming politician.
Many people in SC like him on a personal level.
Because useful idiots continue listening to GOP sycophants who spread the lie that a Republican siding with Democrats is better than a Democrat.
Then they complain when the closet Democrat sides with Democrats.
then they vow to never do it again.
Then they do it again.
Thank those GOP sycophants because many make FR their home.
The deeply entrenched are extremely hard to unseat. I’m sure that there were many crossover votes to ensure this RINO stayed right where he is. SC needs to stop allowing open primaries!
We have our losses, but we are winning the game. TEA is the only group in the nation that is infiltrating and making a big difference. The movement is only 5 years old. We need to look at the successes. They are simply amazing!
Someone over saturated the field with lots if so called tea party candidates . If there had been just one minnie mccain might have joined Cantor.
What were his final numbers? Last I saw he was around 55/56%, hardly a trouncing of six under-funded, inexperienced politicians. Especially when he bragged he had $13 mil going into this race and a statewide organization in place.
He probably shouldn’t be crowing quite so loud or someone’s probably going to pick up on his underwhelming victory.
BINGO!!
the Candidates split the vote six against one uber rich fairy? Puhleeze!
Gramnesty needed 50% +1 vote to win outright tonight and avoid a runoff, which he did. Even if all the votes of every challenger tonight had gone to just one challenger, Gramnesty still would have received over 50% of the vote.
“defeating six tea party challengers”
Which part of “divide and lose” don’t you understand?
If six conservatives had split the vote against Cantor, there wouldn’t be anything to celebrate tonight.
Well he must have had some fear of the possibility of a runoff, since he dropped the “I-word” (Impeachment) last week.
Gramnesty needed 50% +1 vote to win outright tonight and avoid a runoff, which he did. Even if all the votes of every one of his challengers had gone to just one challenger, Gramnesty still would have received over 50% of the vote and won outright.
CROSS OVER VOTING FROM THE RATS.
again. too many challengers. split the conservative vote. depressed the conservative vote. split or stopped the inflow of conservative money. i gave to brat. could never figure out who was the conservative leader in SC, so i never sent any money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.