Latest news with #RepublicanPrimary
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Project 2025 architect Paul Dans to challenge Lindsey Graham for Senate in South Carolina
Paul Dans, the main force behind the polarizing conservative blueprint Project 2025, is planning to challenge South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in next year's Republican primary. Dans told CNN he will formally launch his campaign with a prayer breakfast Wednesday in Charleston. Graham, a close friend of President Donald Trump's, is seeking a fifth term and already has the president's backing. Dans, though, said there is room for a Republican candidate to prove they are more loyal to and aligned with Trump than Graham. 'He's a 70-year-old childless warmonger and he has no stake in the future of this country,' Dans said. 'He is the very reason that MAGA started in the first place, and we only have to look at 2016 when he was a vehement Trump hater. A leopard doesn't change its spots.' Dans went on to rebuke Graham for voting to confirm judicial nominees put forth by Barack Obama and Joe Biden during their presidencies and for his past remarks affirming Russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, signaling some potential future attacks during the primary campaign. Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is also running in the GOP primary against Graham. A veteran of the first Trump administration, Dans spent the next few years at the Heritage Foundation. There, he spearheaded Project 2025, a right-wing roadmap for the next Republican president put together by more than 100 conservative organizations in the lead up to the 2024 election. It included a 900-page manifesto full of policy prescriptions that provided Democrats with ample fodder to attack Trump during the presidential campaign. As criticism intensified, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 and Dans was pushed out of Heritage. However, a CNN review found many of Trump's early actions as president aligned with Project 2025's proposals. Dans suggested the blueprint – once seen as a liability for Trump – could demonstrate his MAGA credentials to South Carolina Republican voters. 'I was able to work with thousands of patriots who came together and put in that labor to make the next conservative president hit the ground day one. And that's what President Trump and his team did,' Dans said. 'It's gratifying to see these ideas preserved and put into action. But to be clear, the battle goes on.'
Washington Post
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Project 2025 architect Paul Dans to challenge Lindsey Graham for Senate
Paul Dans, a key architect of the Project 2025 right-wing policy operation, plans to launch a campaign to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) in the Republican primary, joining a large field of candidates hoping to oust the longtime senator. Dans, who has never run for public office, said he felt he had 'no choice' but to run against Graham, whom he described in an interview Monday as 'utterly disconnected' from the people of South Carolina.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nikki Haley endorses Ralph Norman, Project 2025 architect launches Senate campaign
A high-profile conservative says he is running to unseat long-time Sen. Lindsey Graham in next year's Republican primary. Paul Dans, the former director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project known as Project 2025, announced his plans to run against Graham — launching a campaign page and changing his social media bio to say, "Candidate for U.S. Senate to Retire Lindsey Graham once and for all." Dans, a former member of the Trump administration and lawyer, boasts conservative policy points like cutting government spending, bringing down the federal debt and fighting federal bureaucracy on his campaign website. He aligns himself with Trump's ideologies and authored Project 2025, a conservative policy plan laying out a course of action for a Republican presidency. "For conservatives to have a fighting chance to take on the Administrative State and reform our federal government, the work must start now," Dans wrote in the Project 2025 forward. "The entirety of this effort is to support the next conservative President, whoever he or she may be." He is planning to make a "special announcement" on July 30, at the Old Provost Exchange Dungeon in Charleston. "As a proven conservative who led Project 2025's blueprint for reform and served in Trump's administration, Paul offers a bold, America First vision," Dans campaign website states. The race for Graham's Senate seat is getting crowded with three other candidates declared. Dans' Republican competitors, so far, are incumbent Graham, former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer, and businessman Mark Lynch. An official primary date and filing deadline have not been set. Ralph Norman racks up Republican party endorsements Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is putting her support behind U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman's campaign for governor. More: Congressman Ralph Norman officially joins the 2026 race for South Carolina governor Norman (SC-5th District) formally announced his campaign on July 25 before a kickoff event on July 27. He also earned the endorsements of Jim DeMint, a former U.S. Senator from South Carolina, and Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff. The congressman notably endorsed Haley for president over Trump and joined her on the campaign trail before she dropped out of the primary race in 2024. He will compete against Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, State Sen. Josh Kimbrell and Attorney General Alan Wilson in the Republican primary contest next year. Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics. Contact her at bcarpentier@ This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Project 2025 writer joins South Carolina Senate race to unseat Graham
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican Announces Senate Run—and Misspells State He's Running In
MAGA Representative Mike Collins of Georgia has his work cut out for him as he enters the 2026 Republican Senate primary field. His GOP challengers will include another MAGA candidate and likely also former college football coach Derek Dooley, who reportedly has Governor Brian Kemp's support. Meanwhile, Democratic spokesperson Devon Cruz told Fox News that incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff is 'building massive momentum to take on whichever Donald Trump loyalist limps over the finish line.' Collins, for his part, stumbled right out of the gate, with an early campaign video that misspells the name of the state he's running in. In the video ad, posted to Collins's campaign account on X late Sunday, the lawmaker says, 'We've got to be absolutely unrelenting. We've got to be unafraid to fight. We've got to be unafraid to call balls and strikes, a spade a spade. And I think y'all have seen I don't mind doing that.' An audio clip of Donald Trump speaking approvingly of Collins plays, before the Georgia Republican chimes back in: 'We're gonna put the hammer down, and we're gonna get it done.' The video shows various B-roll footage, mostly of Collins, as text flashes on the screen accompanying his monologue. It all leads up to the end card, which absolutely bungles the landing: 'GEORIGA, LET'S RIDE.' 'Oof, tough typo in an early Senate campaign ad,' wrote Amber Duke of the right-wing Daily Caller news site. Critics of Collins relished the mistake in his replies, where some concerned supporters also pointed out the error: 'Take it down! Quick,' pleaded one MAGA account on X, with another conservative writing, 'Please correct the spelling of 'Georgia.' Otherwise, I approve this message.' The egregious typo adds to a colorful digital footprint for the lawmaker who, in May, likened the addition of a halal restaurant in place of a Steak 'n Shake in the Rayburn House Cafeteria to 'the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the 7th century,' and, during the 2024 campaign, shared a portrait of JD Vance in which the now vice president was digitally altered to appear more masculine.
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Project 2025 architect is taking on Trump stalwart Lindsey Graham, 70, for Senate seat
Paul Dans, one of the top architects behind Project 2025, is joining the Republican primary to oust South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham — who has held the seat for 22 years. Joining a crowded primary field, Dans said the Trump administration's cuts to the federal workforce and federal programs are what he had aimed for when putting together Project 2025. But he noted that there's 'more work to do.' 'What we've done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,' said Dans. 'If you look at where the chokepoint is, it's the United States Senate. That's the headwaters of the swamp.' Dans will formally announce his bid at a campaign event in Charleston on Wednesday. His campaign will launch with a prayer breakfast followed by an event at a historic venue. About Graham, he said, 'It's time to show him the door.' Trump 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser on the Graham campaign, said in a statement that, 'After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump's historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump's longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham.' Graham, who has been in the Senate since 2003, has previously beaten challengers who have taken him on. President Donald Trump has already endorsed Graham, and Sen. Tim Scott and the state's governor, Henry McMaster, are chairing his bid for a fifth term. Graham, 70, also has millions in his campaign account. With more than a year left until the 2026 midterm elections, former South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews have also announced that they will run for the seat. During Trump's first term, Dans worked in the White House as the liaison to the Office of Personnel Management. He said he expects to garner the support of Project 2025 allies and Trump supporters who have grown tired of Graham. Following Trump's departure from the White House, Dans joined the Heritage Foundation, where he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page plan for a new Republican administration includes chapters authored by several conservatives and argues for dismantling the federal government and reducing its workforce. 'To be clear, I believe that there is a 'deep state' out there, and I'm the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,' said Dans, adding that he put together large parts of the tome at his Charleston kitchen table. Dans said one of the goals was to 'deconstruct the administrative state,' which he argued the Trump administration has been doing, noting former Trump adviser Elon Musk 's leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency, which took the lead in shutting down the United States Agency for International Development. As Project 2025 came under scrutiny in July last year, Dans departed from the Heritage Foundation. The plan gained notoriety last summer as Democrats highlighted the proposals as a warning of what would be forthcoming if Trump were allowed to return to the White House. Trump, then a presidential candidate and former president, put some distance between himself and Project 2025, claiming that it wasn't connected to his 'Agenda 47.'
