Graham eyes May presidential announcement

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday there’s a better than 90 percent chance he’ll run for president, saying he’ll decide in May.

“If I can raise the money, I’ll do it,” the South Carolina Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.”


Graham said he’ll win South Carolina if he’s on the ballot, pointing out he won his reelection primary there last year by more than 40 points, despite challenges from multiple candidates. A recent poll of the GOP presidential primary field in South Caroilna, however, showed him trailing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

“If I didn’t think I could win South Carolina, I wouldn’t be talking to you,” Graham said.

The South Carolina senator offered the strong signal that he’ll run for president after being told that former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina recently indicated she was 90 percent certain to enter the race. Asked by Fox host Chris Wallace to offer a percentage likelihood that he’d run, Graham said, “91.”

The third-term senator has staked his prospective bid for the GOP presidential nomination on his foreign policy chops, running as a hawk on Iran and using the Fox News interview to land broadsides on some of his potential Republican opponents and the Obama administration.

Still, he’s viewed skeptically by a Republican base wary of his support for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship and of a debt reduction plan that would raise new revenue in addition to cutting entitlement and other spending.

In particular, Graham offered underhanded praise for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), predicting the first-term senator “will be president someday” but that 2016 might not be his time.

Graham saved his most pointed barbs for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who’s championed a less muscular approach to foreign policy. Graham said Paul wants to treat captured terrorists as criminals rather than wartime combatants. “He wants to fight a crime,” Graham said. “I’m fighting a war.”