Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) Elected 2002, 1st term up 2008
Born:	July 9, 1955, Central
Home:	Seneca
Education:	U. of SC, B.A. 1977, J.D. 1981
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	single
Elected  Office:	SC House of Reps., 1992-94; U.S. House of Reps., 1994-02.
Military Career:	Air Force, 1982-88; SC Air Natl. Guard, 1989-94 (Operation Desert Storm); Air Force Reserves, 1995-present.
Professional Career:	U.S. Air Forces Europe Circuit Trial Counsel, 1984-88; Asst. Oconee Cnty. Atty., 1988-92; Practicing atty., 1988-94; Judge Advocate, McEntire Air Natl. Guard Base, 1989-94; Central SC City Atty., 1990-94.
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South Carolina's junior senator is Lindsey Graham, a Republican elected in 2002. Graham grew up in Pickens County, where his parents owned a beer joint. His parents died after he went to college at the University of South Carolina; he became his younger sister's legal guardian. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, then received a master's and a law degree from the University of South Carolina, and then served in the Air Force as a prosecutor in Germany, Crete and other distant locales. In 1988 he returned home and practiced law in Seneca, the same town where North Carolina Senator John Edwards grew up; he also served as a judge advocate at McEntire Air National Guard Base. He was called up to active duty and served stateside during the Gulf war. In 1992 he was elected to the state House. In 1994, with the retirement of 20-year Congressman Butler Derrick, Graham ran for the House. Both parties had contested primaries, but the Republican contest attracted more votes--41,000 versus 35,000--and Graham won without a runoff with 52% of the vote. In the general he faced state Senator Jim Bryan. Graham called for term limits, supported more defense spending and opposed gays in the military. His attitude toward the Clinton administration and the Democratic leadership was unequivocal: "I'm one less vote for an agenda that makes you want to throw up." Bryan also campaigned as a conservative--pro-life, anti-gays in the military, against employer mandates in health care, against defense cuts--and boasted of his legislative experience. Graham modeled his campaign after Bob Inglis's successful 1992 race in the next-door 4th District and won 60%-40%--a smashing victory in a district represented only by Democrats since Reconstruction.

In the House Graham had a solidly conservative voting record but did not always support the Republican leadership. In July 1997 he helped organize the fight to overthrow Speaker Newt Gingrich. This coup soon foundered, and in a Republican Conference meeting, when Dick Armey said no member of the leadership was involved, Graham lunged to the microphone to contradict him.

As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Graham played a major role in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. When Clinton defenders quibbled about the meaning of words and insisted that Clinton's deposition testimony was "legally accurate," Graham exploded in opposition. He was especially upset at the way Clinton used the official powers of the White House to discredit Monica Lewinsky. Yet he voted against impeaching Clinton for lying in the Paula Jones deposition, on the ground that it was later ruled immaterial by the judge. In the Senate trial Graham's folksy manner and clear description of Clinton's offenses--"Where I come from, a man who calls someone up at 2:30 in the morning is up to no good"--made him one of the most effective managers. On other issues, he passed in the House in 1999 and 2001 the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which makes it a separate crime to injure an unborn child when assaulting a pregnant woman. He defied most South Carolina Republican leaders and supported John McCain in 2000 and was a tireless and highly visible supporter all over South Carolina.

Senator Strom Thurmond, reelected to his eighth term in 1996 one month before he turned 94, promised not to run again in 2002. Thurmond's political career spanned most of the 20th century: As a delegate to the Democratic National Convention he voted for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, he was on the beach on D-Day (he had to get an exemption because he was over age) in 1944, was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1946 and was the presidential candidate of the State's Rights Democratic party in 1948. In 1954 he was elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate and in 1964 he switched to the Republican party; at the 1968 Republican National Convention he provided critical support for Richard Nixon. A segregationist for years, he switched after the Voting Rights Act was passed and was the first Southern senator to hire black staffers and nominate a black federal judge. He worked assiduously on South Carolina projects, sent out thousands of letter to South Carolinians and was reelected without difficulty to more Senate terms than anyone else in American history. He celebrated his 100th birthday as a U.S. senator at a party in the Capitol that made news.

It is not often that a Senate seat comes open in South Carolina; the last time one did was in 1941 (Thurmond and Ernest Hollings both won their seats by beating incumbent senators appointed to fill vacancies). Yet in this now heavily Republican state Graham had no opposition in the Republican primary: his work on impeachment and in the McCain campaign made him well known and well liked statewide. He was endorsed by three former governors and Bob Dole; Strom Thurmond added his endorsement in November 2001. Democrats portrayed him as lacking in substance, and state Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian said on the day Graham announced in February 2001 that he was "light in the loafers"; Graham accused him of slander since the phrase is sometimes used as a pejorative reference to homosexuality. Harpootlian, perhaps disingenuously, denied any such imputation. But for all their bravado, state and national Democrats had a hard time coming up with a candidate; eight prominent Democrats turned them down. Finally they found a candidate, and an attractive one at that, Alex Sanders, president of the College of Charleston, with a colorful resume. Sanders ran off as a teenager and joined the circus, and was briefly a juggler and fire eater; in 1966 he was elected to the state House, in 1974 he lost a race for lieutenant governor, in 1976 he was elected to the state Senate, in 1985 he was appointed to the state Court of Appeals and in 1992 he was named college president. Sanders was also a folksy raconteur, gifted at telling hundreds of old stories, charming and well connected around the state. He resigned as college president and announced for the Senate September 5, 2001.

Sanders was an active and energetic candidate. He dialed assiduously for dollars, even as he complained about being handed a script, and raised eventually $4.2 million, below Graham's $5.8 million, but a considerable achievement for a candidate who was always behind in the polls. He charmed reporters and was profiled by Joe Klein in the New Yorker and on 60 Minutes. He said that he "hadn't been a very good Democrat" and that he was a member of the National Rifle Association and the Sons of Confederate Veterans as well as the NAACP. He supported the Bush tax cuts (though he said he was for more tax cuts only to create jobs) and military action in Iraq. But he opposed the death penalty, on religious grounds. And he opposed a constitutional amendment to allow criminalization of flag burning. Graham hammered him on the death penalty and the flag amendment but most of all on his party. "Let me tell you, the big difference between my opponent and myself is who's in control of the U.S. Senate." He said Sanders would advance the liberal agenda of Tom Daschle, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy, and pointed to his contributions from Democratic celebrities. "Barbra Streisand, great singer, very liberal. My opponent is a nice guy, but he's getting Democratic support out the ying-yang." Democratic ads hit Graham for supporting individual investment accounts in Social Security. Graham stood his ground and argued that the system would be broke by 2040, when many of today's voters would be about to retire. Sanders attacked Graham for supporting gubernatorial nominee Mark Sanford's gas tax increase. In one of their four debates Sanders, perhaps weary of being attacked for associating with glamorous liberals, said of Graham's endorsement by Rudolph Giuliani, "He's an ultraliberal. His wife kicked him out and he moved in with two gay men and a Shih Tzu. Is that South Carolina values? I don't think so." But Sanders was put on the defensive by his own comment that South Carolinians could prove they were not racists by voting for him. Trying to explain, he said, "When I said I would show America that we are not ignorant, racist, redneck Dixiecrats, I was referring to the false stereotype many people in the North have of us in South Carolina. None of these terms are applicable to Senator Thurmond, and I most certainly was not referring to him."

Graham won 54%-44%, about the margin one might have projected from the polls. Graham ran just a little bit better than Mark Sanford in all parts of the state and came close to carrying the part of the state outside the big metro areas. So Graham took the place of a senator first elected in the year before he was born. He said that his goals were legislation to state that South Carolina is not the permanent depository for plutonium, a teacher loan forgiveness bill and supporting George W. Bush, although he differed from him on trade, military retiree pay, drought relief and trial lawyer issues.

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DC Office
290 RSOB 20510, 202-224-5972; Fax: 202-224-1189; Web site: lgraham.senate.gov

State Offices
Columbia, 803-933-0112; Florence,843-669-1505; Greenville,864-250-1417; Mount Pleasant,843-849-3887; Washington,202-224-5972.

Committees

• Armed Services: Emerging Threats & Capabilities; Seapower; Strategic Forces.
• Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: Children & Families.
• Judiciary: Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights; Constitution, Civil Rights & Property Rights; Crime, Corrections & Victims' Rights (Chmn.).
• Veterans' Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	15	0	11	25	72	62	54	70	83	89	83
2001	15	--	10	14	--	--	64	78	88	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	22%	--	74%		47%	--	53%
Social	0%	--	81%		39%	--	57%
Foreign	21%	--	74%		24%	--	72%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Lindsey Graham (R)	600,010	54%	$6,213,563
	Alex Sanders (D)	487,359	44%	$4,211,812
2002 primary	Lindsey Graham (R)	unopposed
Prior winning percentages: 2000 House (68%); 1998 House (100%); 1996 House (60%); 1994 House (60%)