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Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)

U.S. Senator (since January 2003)

(Chris Kleponis/Getty Images)

Why He Matters

Graham is South Carolina's senior senator, an Air Force veteran with a twang who sometimes bucks the Republican Party. And those same Republicans often bristle at him, with Redstate.com labeling him a "RINO," or Republican in Name Only, and Fox's Glenn Beck comparing him to President Obama because Graham proposed helping close Guatanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists.

As a House member in the 1990s, Graham was best known for prosecuting President Bill Clinton's impeachment case. As a senator since 2002, he is best known as Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) right-hand man on the 2008 presidential campaign trail and has been called "McCain's Mini-Me."

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Representative, (1994 to 2002); South Carolina Representative (1992 to 1994); Air Force Reserves, (1995-present); Central, S.C., City Attorney, (1990 to 1994 ); South Carolina Air National Guard, (1989 to 1994)
Birthday: July 9, 1955
Hometown: Central, S.C.
Alma Mater: University of South Carolina, B.A., 1977, and J.D., 1981.
Spouse: Single
Religion: Baptist
Committees: Armed Services ; Budget ; Judiciary ; Aging ; Appropriations
DC Office: 290 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510(202) 224-5972

State Offices: Upstate Regional Office101 East Washington StreetSuite 220Greenville(864) 250-1417Midlands Regional Office508 Hampton StreetSuite 202Columbia(803) 933-0112Florence(843) 669-1505Lowcountry Regional Office530 Johnnie Dodds Boulevard, Suite 202Mt. Pleasant(843) 849-3887Piedmont Regional Office140 East Main Street, Suite 110Rock Hill(803) 366-2828
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Path to Power

Graham was born on July 9, 1955, and grew up in Central, South Carolina, population 2,000. His mother and father, neither of whom finished high school, ran a local restaurant/bar/pool hall called Sanitary Cafe, where Graham pitched in. When he was growing up, the Sanitary Cafe only offered takeout service to African-Americans while white people could eat inside.

When both of his parents died while he was in college, Graham became the legal guardian of his 13-year-old sister Darlene. He went on to graduate from the ROTC program at the University of South Carolina in 1977 and earned his law degree there in 1981. Then Graham joined the U.S. Air Force as a lawyer.

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He served at the Rhein Mein Air Force Base in Germany for much of the 1980s before leaving active duty in 1989. Afterward, he joined the South Carolina Air National Guard, of which he was a member until 1994.

It was during his time in the Air National Guard that Graham was called to active duty during the first Gulf War. He served as a staff judge advocate at McEntire Air National Guard Base in South Carolina. While there, his job was to brief members of the Armed Services who were deploying to the Gulf, including providing legal services for their families. Since 1995, Graham has remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. Graham is currently an Air Force colonel and a senior instructor at the Air Force JAG School. In 2007, he served two weeks of reserve duty in Iraq, making him the only Iraq War veteran in the Senate.

Graham also spent time as a lawyer in private practice between 1988 and his election to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1992. His first run for office was financed by winning a medical malpractice suit.

Congressional Career

Just two years later, Graham ran for the U.S. House seat being vacated by a 20-year veteran. Graham won the primary with 52 percent of the vote, and defeated Clinton-critic and conservative Democratic state senator, Jim Bryan, 60 to 40 percent, in the general election. Graham was the first Republican to be elected from his state's 3rd Congressional District since 1877.

Graham was ushered into Congress in the Republican revolution orchestrated by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1994, but in 1997, he was instrumental in an attempted coup of Gingrich.

Clinton Impeachment Trial

Graham immediately carved out a niche as a folksy, camera-ready advocate for the Republican Party. His seat on the House Judiciary Committee during the 1998 Clinton impeachment hearings gave him the opportunity to sometimes side with Democrats, such as when he voted not to release certain details of President Clinton's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. He was the only Republican (out of 21) on the Judiciary Committee to voice support for censure of Clinton rather than impeachment.

Famously, Graham opened a committee meeting by asking, "''Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?''

"Nobody can tell me yet whether this is part of a criminal enterprise or a bunch of lies which build upon themselves based on not wanting to embarrass your family. If that's what it is, about an extramarital affair with an intern, and that's it, I will not vote to impeach this president no matter if 82 percent of the people back home want me to, because we will destroy this country," Graham said.

Ultimately, however, Graham sided with the majority of Republicans. He served as a House manager of the impeachment trial and voted for three of the four articles of impeachment.

Though the case got him national attention, Graham says he doesn't want it to define him. "I don't want to be remembered as the impeachment boy. That shortchanges who I am. I know the first line of my obituary is going to be that. Bill Clinton's obituary will mention it too. I'm no more happy about it than he is."

2002 Senate Race

Graham made it known early that he would run to succeed Sen. Thurmond, who had been in the Senate longer than Graham had been alive. In 2002, he received Thurmond's endorsement and didn't have any competition in the Republican primary. He faced Democrat Alex Sanders, a former member of the state House, the state Senate, the state Court of Appeals and a former president of the College of Charleston. Despite Sanders' reputation as a raconteur and a good fundraiser, Graham hammered him for his liberal associations and won, 54 to 44 percent.

In 2008, Graham easily won reelection 57 to 42 percent over Democratic challenger Bob Conley, an engineer and flight instructor who had been a Republican supporter of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) just a year earlier. Conley had $20,000 on hand compared to Graham's $3 million.

In the Senate, Graham sits on five committees: Agriculture, Armed Services, Judiciary, Budget, and Veterans Affairs.

The Issues

Graham voted with the majority of Republicans 88.2 percent of the time in the 110th Congress. Notable disagreements with the George W. Bush administration include Graham's votes against the Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003 and 2005 and against the medical malpractice bill in 2003 and 2004.

The Economy

Like the vast majority of Senate Republicans, Graham voted against President Obama's $800 million economic stimulus package in February 2009. He said that bill funneled money to the wrong places.

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In October 2008, Graham voted for the $700 billion bailout package that passed the Senate, 74 to 25. In a statement, Graham said, "Congress faced an unpleasant but necessary choice of approving the financial rescue plan. We did not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road like we've done with Social Security and entitlements. We could not hope somebody braver than us would come along and have courage that we could not muster. This was on our watch and time was of the essence."

Terrorist Detainees

Graham also challenged the Bush administration on detaining suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. He had particular credibility on the issues as a former Air Force lawyer, and stated that the detainees should be allowed to see the evidence against them and are entitled to some Geneva Convention protections.

Graham has stated his opposition to torture and challenged a Bush-nominated judge who narrowly defined torture. A self-described "big fan of the Geneva Conventions," Graham says that granting fundamental rights to detainees will bolster the U.S. reputation abroad as well as help the treatment of American troops captured by enemies in the future.

He raised serious conservative ire in March 2010 when he said he would push his GOP colleagues to help close Guantanamo if President Obama agreed to hold trials of 9/11 mastermind Khaleid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in military tribunals rather than civilian courts.

"Gang of 14"

Graham has occasionally collaborated with Democrats. The most notable example was his role in the "Gang of 14," the group of seven Democrats and seven Republicans who in 2005 pledged not to filibuster judicial nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."

Immigration

In March 2010, Graham and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with President Obama to discuss ways forward on the contentious issue of immigration reform, which stalled in the 110th Congress.

They wrote a Washington Post op-ed that outlined their proposal, which included:

requiring biometric Social Security cards and requiring employers to verify immigration status or face stiff penalties
strengthening border security
"implementing a tough but fair path to legalization" for those already in the U.S.

"They would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society by performing community service and paying fines and back taxes," Schumer and Graham wrote. "These people would be required to pass background checks and be proficient in English before going to the back of the line of prospective immigrants to earn the opportunity to work toward lawful permanent residence."

In the 110th Congress, Graham strongly supported his friend Sen. McCain's immigration reform proposals, a stance that damaged Graham's public approval rating back in South Carolina and inspired the phrase "Grahamnesty" because of the perception they would give amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Climate Change

In an October 2009, New York Times op-ed written with 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (D-Mass.), Graham stated that "climate change is real," something that many of his GOP colleagues would disagree with. He said that the U.S. should lead the way towards finding a solution and that there are bipartisan alternatives that can garner 60 Senate votes.

He advocates "aggressive reductions in our emissions of the carbon gases" through a "market-based system" based on renewable energy sources like wind solar and more controversially, nuclear power.

Along with developing new sources of power, Graham and Kerry support "breaking our dependence on foreign oil" through such things as more on-and-offshore oil domestic oil drilling and developing carbon sequestration technology that would enable col plants to burn coal without as much pollution (otherwise known as "clean coal" technology).

The Network

Graham has been close to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) since the latter's run for president in 2000. Graham, then a representative, endorsed McCain in his unsuccessful primary fight against George W. Bush when most of the South Carolina political establishment was backing Bush. "[McCain] called me out of the blue and said, 'I'm thinking about running for president. Will you support me?' Graham said. "I said, 'Sure, yeah, I'll support you, because you're the first person who ever asked. What the hell? Why not?'"

The two have been close ever since and Graham was a frequent and forceful surrogate during McCain's 2008 campaign. "If I make his day better by being someone he can talk to, confide in, have a good laugh with, I am honored to play that role. I enjoy his company," Graham said of McCain.

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Additional Resources