Conservatives Meet to Unite Against Lindsey Graham

A sign at the edge of a dirt road at Clemson’s Sandhill Research and Education Center in Columbia directed drivers to a “Unity Meeting.” At the end of that road, conservative activists met in a conference center next to a small lake. The gathering was not a quarterly or monthly session but was for one intention.

Viewing the walls of the conference center, which were stamped with quotes from Sen. Lindsey Graham, would erase any uncertainty about that intention. Those quotes, according to the meeting’s attendees, were proof of Graham’s betrayal of conservative values. Pulled from 9/12 groups, Tea Party organizations and other conservatives from across South Carolina, approximately 100 activists worked through a full agenda dedicated to uniting for the purpose of defeating Graham in 2014. 

See what popular SC politicians they want to run here.

Since their inception in 2009, Tea Party groups in South Carolina—and the rest of the country—have been both passionate and unwieldy. Building consensus has been something of a problem. The Tea Party’s impact on electoral politics is undeniable, but its inability to coalesce or endorse behind a single candidate—in the name of maintaining its independence—has occasionally been to its detriment. The most obvious example was last year’s presidential race, when conservatives could not choose from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as the alternative to Mitt Romney, which ended up splitting the vote and giving the nomination to Romney.

Vote-splitting has occurred in numerous races across the country and left conservatives disappointed. “We can’t be divided anymore,” said one speaker. “We have to have everyone pulling the rope in the same direction.” South Carolina conservatives have reason to believe they can come together. They were essential to Gingrich’s primary victory in January 2012 when Tea Party groups took the unusual step of endorsing the former Speaker.

Others aren’t so sure unity is possible. “They will never agree to back one candidate. They'll all want their candidate to be the one,” one activist told Patch.

But Greg Fettig of FreedomWorks, one of the speakers at Saturday’s meeting, said that can be overcome.

Fettig is based in Indiana and was instrumental in helping Richard Mourdock upset then Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary there in 2012.

Lugar and Graham have many similarities: Deep ties to the military, a willingness to work with Democrats and deep campaign pockets.

In the 2010 Indiana Senate race, conservatives split and allowed the moderate Dan Coats to be elected. Fettig wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again in 2012 and was able to unite Hoosier State conservatives behind Mourdock, who was able to defeat Lugar in the primary. Mourdock was on track to win the general election until he committed a gaffe, implying that a pregnancy resulting from rape was God’s will.

Fettig thinks a Mourdock-like upset can occur in South Carolina but he said conservatives must unite behind one candidate and it must be before the primary. If the conservative choice is clear, he said, enough money will come to that candidate to make him or her competitive with Graham, who will start with a base of support of about 40 percent and with millions of dollars in his campaign coffers.

The fly in the ointment in South Carolina for this scenario is the primary process. Having to beat Graham once in a primary will be formidable enough. But having to beat him in a primary and a run-off will be nothing short of insurmountable.

And in South Carolina’s open primary system that is precisely what a challenger to Graham would likely have to face since a candidate can only win a primary with 50 percent of the vote plus one.

Making matters more difficult for a Graham opponent is the open primary system, which allows Democrats to vote for Republicans—and vice versa—which means that many moderate Democrats could very well vote for Graham in a primary.

The Greenville County Republican Party has filed a federal lawsuit asking a court to invalidate the open primary system--a prospect which appears to be a long shot at best.

At Saturday’s meeting, there was very little talk of policy or issues despite the fact that large numbers of Republicans believe that Tea Party candidates are unelectable and Tea Party policy positions are outside the mainstream.

Also absent was the rage or overheated rhetoric that some have used to stereotype the Tea Party. Which is not to say there wasn’t tough talk.

“We’re in a battle here,” said one speaker. “We didn’t win the American Revolution or World War I or World War II by being nice. We have to put our Southern manners away when the time comes.”

Nevertheless, the tone of the meeting was of a maturing political organization, more than one participant called it Tea Party 2.0.