Despite being a onetime Donald Trump foe, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is sticking by the former president as he attempts to run for office again.
The only caveat: Graham’s fellow South Carolinian, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, is also running for president in 2024. And Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) launched a 2024 exploratory committee on Tuesday, inching closer to a presidential campaign.
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Graham, for his part, has been friendly in his approach to both Haley and Scott.
“When it comes from Tim Scott, it comes from the heart. My friend and colleague Tim Scott has one of the most compelling stories in American politics and the country as a whole,” he tweeted.
“I am extremely proud of Tim, as well as the former Governor of South Carolina @NikkiHaley as they show what our state has become,” Graham continued in the tweet thread.
But don’t expect Graham to waver from his pro-Trump stance.
Graham has come a long way from telling CNN's Dana Bash in 2016 that he didn't think Trump "has the temperament or judgment to be commander in chief." Graham attended Trump’s first major campaign rally in the Palmetto State earlier this year.
He supported Trump through both of his impeachment trials. As Trump battles legal trouble on multiple fronts, including an indictment for a 2016 hush-money payment to a porn actress, Graham called for supporters to donate to Trump on Fox News.
Justin Hall, the director of communications for the Palmetto Family Council, a prominent conservative Christian group in South Carolina, said Graham's popularity in the state would likely benefit Trump.
“I think certainly anytime you have a senior senator from the state, supporting or backing a certain candidate, I think it does lend some gravitas to that candidate,” Hall said. "Ultimately, I think that he [Graham] sees President Trump as somebody who has the right policy actions and who has the right policy goals."
Graham, Haley, and Scott, along with other influential GOP lawmakers, attended the group’s Vision '24 Forum in March. Trump did not attend, although he was invited.
A recent April poll from Winthrop University showed Graham had a 33% approval rating, while Scott garnered a 47% approval rating. Haley, meanwhile, was tied neck-and-neck with potential 2024 candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at 18% and 20% support, respectively. Both Haley and DeSantis were behind Trump, who received 41% support.
Scott Huffmon, the poll’s director, said Graham's complicated relationship with Trump is endemic to how the senator operates.
"Lindsey Graham's kind of seeming switch and loyalty is a feature, not a bug," Huffmon said. "This is Lindsey Graham's modus operandi. He, better than most, knows which way the political winds blow. And he sets his sails to kind of blow in that direction when they need to."
Huffmon pointed to Graham's defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings in 2018 as one example. "When the Kavanaugh hearings came in, he became an attack dog for Trump. His approval ratings among Republicans in South Carolina shot through the roof," he said. "And that again gave him a boost in time to be reelected when he needed to be reelected."
A November 2018 Winthrop University poll showed 72% of Republicans in South Carolina and 49% of all South Carolinians approved of Graham in the aftermath of the hearings.
Timothy Head, the Faith & Freedom Coalition's executive director, cautioned that not all presidential campaigns would have longevity. "You always have to kind of bear in mind that there's a chance that all of these campaigns may not make it to South Carolina," he said.
He also stressed that split endorsements from Graham and others could have a mitigating effect on candidates in the Palmetto State. But "if all of the South Carolina endorsements go one direction, whichever direction that would be, that could actually be a difference-maker," Head said.
As Haley, and potentially Scott, take on Trump, the South Carolina Republican Party will not take sides.
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“We look forward to the opportunity for our voters to have an in-depth look at the candidates and will remain neutral and provide our famous southern hospitality to all candidates and prospective candidates campaigning in our great state,” spokeswoman Sarah Jane Walker said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Hall, of the Palmetto Family Council, said both Haley and Scott "have bonafide credentials here in South Carolina. They're still well-liked in the state."