Graham: I've got what GOP needs in 2016

Blunt-spoken Lindsey Graham is a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, a deal-cutter on immigration and a backer of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominees.

And that’s the profile the Republican Party needs in its next presidential nominee, he says.


“My party is center right,” Graham told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday. “There’s an element of the left and the right that I don’t think reflects both parties.”

He added: “For those people who believe we are not hard-ass enough on immigration — that we are losing the Hispanic vote because they think we’ve gone soft on immigration — really don’t understand what’s going on in America. A center-right candidacy can prevail in America.”

Graham, 59, who won a third Senate term in November, made his comments Thursday after announcing the formation of an exploratory committee, called “Security through Strength,” to test the waters for a potential 2016 presidential bid. The committee will be run by David Wilkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada under George W. Bush, along with two GOP operatives, Christian Ferry and Scott Farmer. Graham said he would talk to GOP financiers and conduct polling to see if he has a viable path to win before making an official decision by April.

A close ally of Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) and one who is not afraid to take arrows from the right, Graham is viewed as a long shot to win the GOP nomination. But with the most wide-open presidential field in years — as many as two dozen potential candidates are exploring bids — Graham believes there’s an opening for his blend of conservatism. Specifically, Graham thinks he can bill himself as a bipartisan problem-solver who can appeal to Hispanic voters.

“We have a demographic problem,” Graham said. “And I represent a form of conservatism that is acceptable to the reddest of red states.”

Asked about aspects of his record that some conservatives consider liabilities — such as voting to confirm Supreme Court justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — Graham said he thinks qualified presidential nominees should be confirmed by the Senate, a custom he thinks has increasingly been ignored in these partisan times. He noted those votes weren’t a problem in 2014, when he crushed six little-known opponents to win his Senate primary.

“How could a guy win in South Carolina by 41 points who voted for Sotomayor, Kagan, embraces [the notion that] climate change is real and immigration reform is necessary?” said Graham, who noted that he is “inclined to support” Obama’s attorney general pick, Loretta Lynch. “My party is center right. … I am conservative by any rational definition. Working with the other side when it makes sense is not inconsistent with being conservative. I will never concede to anyone that conservatism requires a hands-off approach to solving problems.”

“Barack Obama ran as a centrist, he’s been in the left ditch,” Graham said. “To get America out of the left ditch, you don’t want to put the car in the right ditch.”

McCain, who has been talking up Graham’s presidential prospects for weeks, said he would “absolutely” consider transferring his entire 2008 presidential campaign infrastructure to a potential Graham run. If Graham runs, McCain said, he would immediately endorse him.

“He’s the dark horse. And you watch him. He’ll be a lot more formidable than anyone thinks at this moment,” McCain said. “There are many supporters of mine who are more than happy to examine his campaign.”