Graham has been here before….
He always pulls it out….
We all think he probably will do it again…
But?
This time?
Things are a bit different….
Graham’s hardly hiding his worry either. Just before the close of the third quarter fundraising books, he repeatedly appeared on Fox News shows to plead for cash, repeating his website and complaining he was being swamped by out of state money by liberals who hate him. It’s true — Graham has put himself in far more of a national lightning rod role than he ever was when he was the late Sen. John McCain’s sidekick. Now he’s far more closely aligned with Trump and the national GOP than he ever was, and the money is coming for him for sure.
Now, the Senate Leadership Fund has come in to help bail Graham out to the tune of $10 million so far spent or reserved through Election Day. (The fact that they’re also spending in Kansas, another usually ruby-red state at the federal level, shows how truly in danger the GOP’s Senate majority is).
Graham has been tying Harrison to Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in ads, intoning that electing Harrison would be akin to putting a radical leftist agenda in charge. And he’s also hit Harrison on his past lobbying for The Podesta Group. But perhaps the best ads Graham can run to help boost his image came in the form of two different spots that started airing this weekend featuring praise from Graham’s junior colleague, Sen. Tim Scott, the chamber’s only Black Republican and by far the most popular current statewide elected official in the state.
However, there is one remaining Hail Mary for Graham — the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett that begin next week, in which he’ll have the starring role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans certainly hope that heavy coverage can help consolidate Republican votes and remind them why they want to vote for a GOP majority on judges, with Graham being the only way to get that….
….
The crosstabs in public polling — and what mirrors some private polling — show that Graham still has weaknesses among the GOP base. age people (a stunning +34 margin) — compared to just 44% who say the same thing about Graham (for a -6 margin)….
image…CookPolitical.Com