Scramble scoop

Graham's rivals scramble to scoop up his supporters

GOP candidates heap praise on the South Carolina senator and work the phones to lock down his backers.

By Daniel Strauss

Lindsey Graham's departure from the race set off a scramble among his rivals to try to pick up the support of the South Carolina senator and his backers, a valuable commodity given the state's first-in-the-South primary.

In the first few hours after Graham announced that he was bowing out, his one-time challengers quickly heaped praise on him. And behind the scenes, the various campaigns immediately started courting the ex-candidate's supporters.

Dr. Edward Floyd said he received a call from Jeb Bush on Monday morning and that he extended his support to the former Florida governor. "It never was any question in my mind that if he dropped out that I would go with Bush," Floyd said. Floyd said the call with Bush was brief.

David H. Wilkins, who chaired Graham's finance team and is a former South Carolina House speaker, also said he talked with Bush but declined to say who he was endorsing yet. "I just don't feel comfortable doing it the same day that Lindsey announced that he's dropping out," Wilkins said, while not denying that he talked briefly with Bush on Monday. Wilkins hasn't been coy about his praise for Bush in the past, telling South Carolina's The State newspaper in June, "I have great respect and admiration for the entire Bush family...If Lindsey was not running, I would be proud to support Jeb. But when a friend calls and asks for your help, you help."

Bush on Monday also claimed the endorsement of former Housing and Urban Development assistant secretary Pam Patenaude, who had been backing Graham.

It wasn't just Bush who benefited. Doug Smith, a former speaker pro tempore of the South Carolina House and longtime friend of Graham's, told POLITICO he’s backing Sen. Marco Rubio. “He’s articulate, he understands the issues, he is clearly a statesman,” said Smith, who took his daughters to see Rubio over the weekend but had vowed to back Graham until his bid ended.

Smith said a mad dash across the state to lock up Graham’s allies was already underway. "For whatever it’s worth, Lindsey had a lot of people that supported him, either because of position or because of friendship,” Smith said. "Now that he’s not running I think everybody who was supporting Lindsey is going to be asked to join a team — and sure enough that’s happening."

Even though Graham barely registered at the polls and had weak fundraising numbers, his endorsement and supporters are hot items due to the early timing of the South Carolina primary and because Graham can offer foreign policy credibility to whoever he backs. Graham, along with Sen. Tim Scott and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, are some of the biggest endorsements a candidate could score in the Republican primary, especially for those banking on doing well in the state. (Scott's communications director Sean Smith said on Monday that if Scott does decide to endorse, it will come sometime after the Kemp Presidential Forum he is moderating on Jan. 9 and before the South Carolina Republican primary on Feb. 20.)

Establishment-aligned candidates like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Bush are seen as likely contenders for a blessing from Graham and his supporters, as well as Rubio, whose top campaign aides have deep roots in the state.

Graham, for his part, told CNN in an interview on Monday morning that he has "no intention of endorsing anyone right now," saying he was instead focused on the holidays.

But that didn't stop the candidates from rushing to curry favor with him.

"We work together in the Senate. We do not agree on everything on foreign policy, but he is a defender of a strong national defense as I am. I watched some of the debates he was in, some of the early debates, and I thought he was one of the most forceful voices on any of the debate stages about rebuilding our military," Rubio said in a statement. "So we will miss that in the campaign, but I am sure he will continue to do that in his role in the Senate. And I personally, of course, think Lindsey a good guy, a very funny guy. We will miss his humor on the campaign trail."

Meanwhile, Chris Slick, the South Carolina state director for the pro- Kasich super PAC, gleefully tweeted out members of Graham's South Carolina finance team that had thrown their support behind the Ohio governor.

But other people in Graham's network predicted that there wouldn't be a flood of supporters immediately running to other candidates. Wallace Cheves, managing partner of Sky Boat Gaming and a co-chair of Graham’s South Carolina effort, said the senator’s local team is intensely loyal to him and will likely await his signal before endorsing another candidate.

“Because we’ve just built so much trust with Lindsey, if he came out and wanted to put his support behind any of the candidates, he would just have to ask me, and we would gather our team,” Cheves said.

Cheves said Graham’s South Carolina supporters are “constantly” in touch with his campaign but haven’t yet set another date to talk. But he predicted that Graham will make a new choice well ahead of a Jan. 14 GOP primary debate that will take place in North Charleston.

Barry Wynn, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman, stressed the value of Graham's endorsement. "He's much stronger than he polls in this state. A good example is that he had something like a 30 percent approval rating in the state when he ran for re-election," Wynn said. "But he got 60 percent of the vote."

Graham's support for a GOP presidential candidate, Wynn stressed repeatedly, may not seem that profitable nationally but in the state it's undeniable. "He could have a huge impact here," he said.