‘It’s 24 people:’ Meet the SC donors defecting from Lindsey Graham to Jaime Harrison
Wallace Lightsey, a Greenville attorney, is a self-described “moderate Republican” who has given money over the years to members of both parties. That includes $9,500 to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican incumbent up for reelection this November.
But this year, Lightsey is doing something different: he’s donating to Jaime Harrison, Graham’s Democratic opponent.
“I was a big supporter of Lindsey, especially back in the ‘90s,” Lightsey told The State. “I helped raise money for him and I really liked him. I thought he was very bright, very articulate and seemed to be pretty practical.”
Then came President Donald Trump.
“As far as Lindsey’s concerned, with me, it’s all about Trump and Lindsey’s over-the-top support of Trump. I probably wouldn’t have done anything different if he’d just stayed quiet, but his very vocal support of Trump … that really turned me off.”
Lightsey, who said he’s given $750 to Harrison so far, now joins the ranks of Richard Wilkerson, the former president of Michelin North America who last month became the first longtime Graham donor to publicly switch sides to support Harrison.
But according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The State and McClatchy, Lightsey is also among at least 24 South Carolina donors who have, over the last several months, been quietly writing checks of at least $200 to Harrison after giving money to Graham in previous election cycles.
Cumulatively, as of March 31, these S.C. donors have given $27,000 to Harrison, who now has over $8 million cash on hand, mostly from out-of-state.
Two dozen defectors won’t cost Graham the election. All together, they have given Graham $68,000 since his first Senate bid in 2004, which hardly registers as a speck compared to his current $12.8 million war chest.
“Where Lindsey Graham has lost in that group he has gained much more in the conservative base,” said Katon Dawson, a former state GOP party chairman. “When he subtracts, he’ll pick up someplace else, and that’s what he’s done.”
The new data, however, do offer some evidence that Harrison’s campaign message is resonating with an audience he needs to win over to have any chance of beating Graham: moderates who once supported the senator.
According to Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, what Harrison has accomplished here is noteworthy.
“Given increasing polarization, it’s definitely unusual to see people switching parties, particularly big donors,” said Krumholz, whose nonpartisan group tracks political spending.
And, she added, Harrison has poached more Graham donors than any other senate challenger in the field right now, citing her organization’s analysis of contributions to U.S. Senate candidates across the country.
“There are not a lot of good examples of this phenomenon,” she said, “which is why it’s so striking.”
Danielle Vinson, a political scientist at Furman University, agreed that the findings can’t be ignored, saying it shows that South Carolina moderates who are repelled by the Trump presidency — and by Graham’s transformation from Trump critic to Trump loyalist — are starting to find in Harrison an attractive alternative.
“It’s 24 people,” said Vinson. “But if there are 24 people who are willing to put money where their mouth is, there are going to be others who are going to show up and vote, and vote where their concerns are.
“Those 24 by themselves may not be that concerning,” she continued, “but what they may be representing might be.”
‘No way’
In analyzing the federal campaign contribution records of the 24 donors who have switched from Graham to Harrison, some patterns emerge.
The majority of these donors have given heavily, or exclusively, to Democrats over the years, with Graham oftentimes the only Republican recipient in their roster.
Eight donors agreed to be interviewed about their political contributions, one on the condition of anonymity. Lightsey was the only donor interviewed who described himself as a Republican, with the seven others identifying themselves as either Democratic or Democratic-leaning.
One donor called himself a “liberal,” and six insisted they were “centrists,” “pragmatists” or “independents.”
Scott Huffmon, a political scientist who runs the state’s leading public opinion survey at Winthrop University, was not surprised by this donor profile.
For years, Graham was viewed as a moderate, despite having a very conservative voting record, because he was known as someone who worked with Democrats to get things done, particularly on immigration. With his embrace of Trump, Huffmon said, Graham has “shed that persona.”
Each of the eight donors interviewed by The State agreed Graham has definitely changed since Trump’s election.
“I liked Sen. Graham when he was sort of willing to buck some of the extremes of the party and carve out a more moderate path than some of his party was trying to carve for a while,” said David Zalesne, CEO of Owen Steel and a self-described “practical moderate” from Elgin. “I think some of that may have changed over the last couple years.”
But Zalesne, who has given $4,250 to Graham over the years and $1,500 to Harrison this cycle, was careful not to say whether Graham’s transformation had cost him a vote, explaining simply he was now giving money to Harrison because “Jaime has some fresh perspectives that are important to be heard.”
A few donors said they were specifically bothered by Graham’s defense of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as he was under scrutiny for alleged sexual misconduct, delivering a fiery speech during the confirmation hearings that galvanized Republicans and horrified Democrats — and inspired Harrison to run for Senate in the first place.
“The way Lindsey reacted during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, that really disappointed me,” Lightsey said.
But in the biggest consensus moment, seven of the eight donors — all except for Zalesne — agreed there was a turning point where they decided they were through with Graham, once and for all: when U.S. Sen. John McCain died of brain cancer in 2018, and Graham did not forcefully defend his best friend against Trump’s vicious personal attacks.
Andy Savage — an attorney in Charleston who considers himself “center-left” and has contributed to Democrats as well as 2016 GOP presidential candidates Rand Paul and John Kasich — said he appreciated Graham’s help to confirm a new generation of strong federal judges as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But when it came to McCain, Savage said Graham “abandoned loyalty.
“John McCain was his friend. And, to me, that friendship should have overridden allegiance to the president,” he continued. “There is no way I could support the senator now.”
Savage has given more than $14,500 to Graham and now $1,000 to Harrison.
Edward Pritchard, a retiree on Sullivan’s Island who was classmates with McCain at an Alexandria, Va., high school, agreed.
“I contributed to Lindsey’s campaign every time he ran,” said Pritchard, who gave nearly $2,200 to Graham over the years and recently contributed $2,200 to Harrison. “Now, when our current president says ugly things about John McCain, Lindsey won’t stick up for him. Lindsey won’t open his mouth … I will walk through hot coals to see Lindsey Graham get beat. He has no guts, he has no backbone.”
Vinson, the Furman professor, said the McCain factor was significant.
“The fact that it’s the John McCain stuff that shifted them away from Graham tells me that what they’ve seen, what they’re seeing, from Graham is not just a matter of pragmatism. They are worried about some character issues here.”
‘The best we could do’
It’s not entirely true that Graham didn’t speak up for McCain in the days after his death in August of 2018, when Trump refused to order flags to be flown half-staff in tribute.
“It bothers me greatly when the president says things about John McCain. It pisses me off to no end and I let the president know it,” Graham told CBS News at the time. “The way he’s handled the passing of John was just disturbing.”
Last week, when asked to respond to complaints from donors about his response during that period, Graham told The State that “my relationship with John McCain was something very special and I disagree with that criticism.”
And anger about Graham’s embrace of hardline conservatism ignores the fact that Graham continues to make overtures regularly to Democrats on Capitol Hill: before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, he was working on bipartisan bills to prevent gun violence and address climate change.
“I’ve been consistently a conservative with an independent streak,” Graham recently told The State. “I’ve never been an ideologue to the point that I can’t work with the other side.”
Graham has also let Trump know when he’s displeased with his actions, for example his foreign policy dictates in the Middle East.
But at the end of the day, whatever Graham says and does won’t be enough for those who despise Trump and think that anything short of Graham’s disavowal of the president will be insufficient.
“I think where the senator has frustrated some of his supporters is they don’t feel like he has to be so over-the-top in support of someone who is clearly so divisive,” said Chip Felkel, a political consultant in Greenville and a Republican who has been publicly critical of the president.
Felkel also has supported Graham in the past but is not among the 24 donors who have so far “defected” to Harrison.
“I do not like (Graham) being this close to Trump,” said Johnny Hagins of Greenville — a self-described “independent,” lawyer and longtime Graham backer who also has not yet given money to Harrison. “I can’t stand Trump. A repugnant person, politically and personally.”
This is the opening Harrison’s campaign is hoping to exploit.
“(Harrison) is resonating with people now who want a candidate who believes in something, who stands by his best friend,” said Huffmon, of Winthrop University.
Jessica Taylor, an analyst with the Cook Political Report who recently changed her rating of the South Carolina Senate race to give a remote edge to Harrison, said Graham enjoyed support from moderates in the past because “there wasn’t a viable Democratic candidate, and they liked what Lindsey Graham did in comparison to other Republicans.”
Now, said Taylor, “Harrison does have an opportunity to pick up independents.”
Charles Patrick, a lawyer in Charleston who identifies as a “moderate Democrat,” reflected that sentiment.
“In South Carolina, Lindsey was probably the best we could do in terms of progressive politicians,” he told The State. “I was someone who was supportive of him until 2016, when he made this sudden turnaround, and I was just mystified and disappointed as to how he could go from someone who was so dismissive of Trump to someone who was so supportive to the point of being a sycophant. It was just appalling.”
Harrison, in contrast, “is just a wonderful person,” said Patrick, “the nicest guy, has a wonderful story growing up, so it was really a very easy choice for me that I would support Jaime Harrison for this Senate seat.”
Patrick has given more than $3,300 over the years to Graham; now he’s given $2,800 to Harrison.
“South Carolinians realize that Lindsey Graham has changed,” said Harrison spokesman Guy King in a statement. “The people of the Palmetto State deserve as U.S. Senator who puts them first, and Jaime Harrison is the right person to do just that.”
‘We’ll know in November’
The biggest question mark of Harrison’s campaign is whether a Democrat can win statewide in a presidential election year, in a Republican-leaning state that values incumbency in its elected officials and remains enthusiastic about Trump.
Many of the Graham-to-Harrison converts think he has a shot.
Ray Lattimore — president and CEO of Marketplace Staffing Services in Greenville who has given $250 to Graham and $600 so far to Harrison — said Harrison, an African American, has a chance to break through in a “heavily minority state” where traditionally black voters have made up two-thirds of the Democratic electorate.
“I think he’s the best candidate in the race,” said Lattimore, who says Graham has “lost his way” without McCain.
Others are supporting Harrison but aren’t sure about his chances. He’s a former state Democratic Party chairman who also holds a leadership position with the Democratic National Committee at a time when Republicans are working to demonize Democrats as Socialists.
Harrison also spent years working for U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, in Washington, D.C., and some time as a lobbyist with the now-defunct Podesta Group, which Republicans point to as evidence he’s been tainted by “the swamp” of the nation’s capital.
And none of the 24 donors surveyed by The State and McClatchy revealed themselves to be staunch Republicans pondering switching allegiances from Graham to Harrison for the first time in their political lives — a sign that Graham still has a hold on the conservative voters he needs.
“This idea that there is a schism in the party? I just did a poll not long ago showing I have 94% of support in South Carolina among Republicans,” said Graham. “I’m not worried about losing Republican supporters.”
“I don’t know” whether Harrison can win, said Mark Tanenbaum, a self described “Democratic liberal” and an attorney from Mt. Pleasant. “But I want South Carolina and South Carolinians to be thought of as more than Lindsey Graham-Trump idolaters.”
Records show Tanenbaum in the past gave more than $5,000 to Graham and has contributed $1,000 so far to Harrison.
To Felkel, the consultant who is now serving as an adviser to the Lincoln Project — a political action committee led by Republicans working to prevent Trump’s reelection — Graham is gambling on winning his own race with support from a new base of supporters: staunch conservatives who didn’t like his reputation as a bipartisan dealmaker prior to his embrace of the current administration.
“The demographics of the voter that Graham has now lost are the people that, when the right wing wouldn’t give him the time of day, he could count on,” said Felkel, referring to the moderates who showed up for Graham when GOP hardliners turned their backs. “A lot of those people write checks.
“His calculation is there are more hardcore Republicans then there are independents, so he is willing to lose them to pick up those others,” he added.
Asked whether he believed that strategy was ill-advised, Felkel paused.
“We’ll know in November.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 12:43 PM.
