State Sen. Lee Bright (R-SC), one of a handful of candidates running in the Republican primary against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), carries a debt of $1.4 million thanks to a failed business, according to an investigation by South Carolina’s The State newspaper.

In financial disclosures first reported by The State, Bright reported owing somewhere between $1.4 million and $3.1 million to 29 creditors. Most of the debt is reportedly results from trucking business that Bright began in 1997. Bright also reported earnings of $92,911 from between January 2012 to August 2012, according to the disclosures.

Observers expect Bright’s debt to hinder his campaign.

“It’s going to be real hard to talk about debt reduction when he has his personal finances in disarray,” Clemson University professor Dave Woodard told the South Carolina newspaper.

Money and financial topics have repeatedly brought Bright into the news. In 2011 Bright argued that South Carolina should adopt its own currency. Earlier in the week TPM flagged that Bright argued that recipients of unemployment benefits shouldn’t be allowed to eat.

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