Lindsey Graham gets Republican challenger: Project 2025 author to announce Senate bid
Paul Dans, lead architect of a controversial conservative policy plan, faces a tough primary against the four-term incumbent in 2026.
WASHINGTON − The original author of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that was central to the 2024 presidential campaign, is jumping into the South Carolina Senate race, vying to unseat four-term Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Paul Dans, a 56-year-old lawyer who also worked for President Donald Trump in his first term, told the Associated Press he's challenging Graham in effort to further the president's agenda.
"What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era," Dans said. "If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp."
Dans was the lead architect of the more than 900-page policy plan to dismantle and reconstruct the nation's government. Many of the action items included in the agenda have already been implemented by Trump in his second term, including federal hiring freezes.
Now, Dans looks to take on South Carolina's senior senator. He is planning to announce his bid officially July 28 at an event in Charleston, the AP reported.
The primary contest will likely pit MAGA voters in the Palmetto State against one another.
Graham has been a regular target of criticism by Trump and his supporters over the last decade, with the lawmaker sometimes splitting from the GOP leader. However, Trump and Graham have been allies in recent years, and the senator already received the president's "complete and total endorsement" in March.
Graham also has the backing of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, both Republicans.
The Dans' challenge will be an uphill battle against a well-known incumbent.
Chris LaCivita, a political strategist who advised Trump's 2024 campaign and is now helping with Graham's reelection bid, accused Dans of having "parachuted himself" into South Carolina, in comments to the AP.
"Like everything Paul Dans starts, this too will end prematurely," LaCivita said.