Lindsey Graham and Jaime Harrison had a US Senate debate in Columbia. So who won it?

At one point during his feisty Saturday night debate with Democratic opponent Jaime Harrison, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham declared that he remains “on the top of my game” as South Carolina’s senior senator in Washington.

But Graham had clearly better be on the top of his game as a candidate over the next 30 days if he wants to remain a senator for our state during the next six years.

Without doubt that’s the biggest takeaway from the Allen University debate between Graham and Harrison, the first of three confrontations they’re scheduled to have in their extremely close Senate race.

Both were effective

In terms of style and substance, the first debate had “draw” written all over it.

Harrison did well in forcefully challenging Graham to “be a man” while ripping the two-term senator’s changing views on everything from term limits to whether Supreme Court nominees should be confirmed during a presidential election.

Graham, meanwhile, was just as effective in forcing Harrison to passionately deny he’s in favor of defunding law enforcement agencies to bring about police reform — and Graham also shrewdly noted that poor minority communities stand to lose the most from efforts by Harrison’s fellow Democrats to block the reasonable reforms proposed by Republican Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina’s junior member of the Senate.

Harrison won the perception battle

But by any objective measure, Harrison resoundingly won the perception battle during Saturday’s debate.

Why?

It’s because the Democrat stood on the same stage as Graham and looked, sounded and generally came across as someone who could credibly replace the longtime incumbent — a political figure who’s rightly held in favor by many South Carolinians and holds considerable influence and power on Capitol Hill.

On Saturday night Harrison clearly answered the “Could I really see him as a senator?” question.

He passed the “feasibility” test.

He cleared one of the daunting hurdles he must surpass to convince South Carolinians to take the massive leap of faith to replace an accomplished lawmaker like Graham with someone making his first run at elected office.

And that guarantees that the final 30 days of the Graham-Harrison race will be pretty compelling political theater.

If nothing else, the 60 minutes that Harrison and Graham shared on a stage at Allen University Saturday night produced two irrefutable facts:

▪ Jaime Harrison will have to dig deep to become a U.S. senator from South Carolina.

▪ Lindsey Graham will have to dig just as deep to remain one.

This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 10:30 AM.