More on Lindsey drop

Lindsey Graham drops out of presidential race

'I was hoping not to have to make this call, but I think the time has come for me to suspend my campaign,' the South Carolina senator says.

By Katie Glueck

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is suspending his presidential run, he told supporters on a conference call Monday.

His announcement came on the same day as the deadline hit for him to remove his name from the South Carolina primary ballot, a date that had been closely watched amid speculation that the low-polling Graham would want to avoid a potentially poor performance in his own state’s contest.

“I was hoping not to have to make this call, but I think the time has come for me to suspend my campaign,” he said as he opened the call.

Graham, a well-respected voice in the Senate who easily won reelection in 2014, despite several attempts to unseat him by primary challengers, has nonetheless failed to gain traction in the presidential contest. The senator, who entered the race in part because he hoped to push foreign policy issues to the forefront on the debate stage, has repeatedly been relegated to undercard contests, where he has earned positive reviews but hardly any boost in poll numbers.

“We’ve come to a point now where I just don’t see how we grow the campaign without getting on the main stage,” he said. “One of the biggest problems we’ve had was to get our voice on equal footing with others. This second-tier debate process has been difficult for us. I think we’ve done well in the debates, it’s just hard to break through because the buzz doesn’t last very long.”

His latest RealClearPolitics national polling average is only .5 percent. In New Hampshire, the state in which Graham has made the biggest efforts, campaigning there as recently as this weekend with ally John McCain, Graham’s average is 0 percent. Graham’s exiting of the race comes just weeks before the next Republican presidential debate comes to his home state, on Jan. 14.

By leaving now, he frees up some South Carolina donors and operatives, who had either been backing Graham or staying neutral out of deference to the state’s senior senator. He also positions himself as a kingmaker in the Feb. 20 South Carolina primary. It’s unclear whom Graham might back, but he has made his disdain known for two of the other candidates currently leading in South Carolina: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Graham told CNN in an interview that he doesn't have any imminent plans to endorse. "I'm going to take some time with my family. Going to think about what I should do. I have no intention of endorsing anyone right now," he said.

Graham made a brand out of his one-liners, including his harsh words against Donald Trump, and his desire to push a hawkish foreign policy stance. He has advocated for sending 20,000 troops to fight the Islamic State, one of the most aggresive proposals among the presidential candidates.

The South Carolina senator received warm words after his announcement on Monday. "Nobody is more clear-eyed about ISIS than my friend @GrahamBlog. As he leaves the race I hope our party & country listen to his counsel," Jeb Bush tweeted.

Sen. John McCain said it was a "pity" that the debate set-up muted Graham's message. "With Senator Lindsey Graham's announcement, Republicans lost our most qualified, thoughtful, fearless and honest presidential candidate, not to mention the candidate with the best (and it seemed sometimes the only) sense of humor," he said in a statement.

Graham, during his call to supporters, said he was proud of the presidential campaign he ran. “I never went down the demagoguery trail,” he said Monday morning, in a shot at Trump. “I didn’t get into this campaign to run other people down, and to bring out the worst in who we are as a party or a country. I think what makes America great is our tolerance for each other and the fact that we respect people who are different. That’s so different than our enemies.”

He went on to add, “I tried to be a voice for those fighting this war.”