Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) may have miscalculated big time when he decided to throw his support all in for Trump. A new Daily Kos/ Civiqs poll reveals that in the traditionally very Republican state of South Carolina, Graham is tied with his presumptive Democratic general election challenger, Jaime Harrison. Both of the candidates garnered 42 percent of the support in the poll. At the same time, Graham’s overall favorability even within his own political party is strikingly low — he registered in the poll results as the least popular Republican politician in the state overall and among Republicans in particular.
Overall, just 35 percent of South Carolina respondents said that they approved of Graham, and a full 56 percent of respondents said that they disapproved of the high-profile Republican. Among members of his own party in particular, Graham garnered the approval of a meager 66 percent of respondents. President Donald Trump managed the approval of a full 89 percent of Republican respondents in the state, and the state’s Republican Governor Henry McMaster got the approval of 68 percent of GOP respondents. The state’s Republican Senator Tim Scott was approved of by a full 83 percent of GOP respondents.
Carolyn Fiddler, communications director for Daily Kos, noted the “sorry news for Lindsey Graham” that’s packed into these latest poll results, commenting:
‘This Daily Kos/Civiqs poll brings sorry news for Lindsey Graham. “While South Carolina remains a difficult place for statewide Democrats to win, voters have soured on their senior senator. This poll also highlights the disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. While just 5% of whites in South Carolina know someone who has died from the coronavirus, 26% of Black South Carolinians know someone the virus has killed.’
“It appears that Republicans want to use the subpoena power of this committee to attack Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic candidate,” Feinstein said in a statement aimed at Lindsey Graham that was entered into the committee record. https://t.co/lVu66hwdAe
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) May 22, 2020
The Coronavirus has killed some 100,000 Americans and counting, but Graham has opted to focus his own recent energies on going after the president’s political opponents, although he could have been working all this time on efforts like holding the government accountable for virus response failures. Graham has scheduled a vote in the Judiciary Committee on subpoenas for a whole slew of former Obama administration officials who the president’s allies allege did something wrong in daring to launch the Russia investigation in response to indisputable evidence. While Graham goes on these pointless political errands, Americans are dying.
Speaker Pelosi criticized President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic by saying that "as the president fiddles, people are dying."https://t.co/D1LaS1Am4x
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 30, 2020
Graham’s general election challenger, Jaime Harrison, publicly responded to the latest available polling. He posted on Twitter:
‘New @Civiqs poll shows Lindsey Graham is under water with a 35% approval rating. What’s more? We’re NECK-AND-NECK with Graham at 42-42. Bad news for @LindseyGrahamSC , great news for this grassroots campaign—thank you being a part of it.’
New @Civiqs poll shows Lindsey Graham is under water with a 35% approval rating.
What's more? We're NECK-AND-NECK with Graham at 42-42.
Bad news for @LindseyGrahamSC, great news for this grassroots campaign—thank you being a part of it.✨https://t.co/LiFqz0m2LM
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) May 27, 2020
Harrison’s fundraising has been formidable. In the final quarter of 2019, he raised nearly $3.6 million, placing his totals alongside those of other high-profile Democratic Senate candidates like Arizona’s Mark Kelly, who consistently polls ahead of his challenger, incumbent Republican Martha McSally. Her seat is one of four currently GOP-held seats that the Cook Political Report rates as toss-ups heading into November. The others are in Colorado, North Carolina, and Maine.
