“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, ‘Let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,'” he said at the time.

But South Carolina political observers are skeptical that voters will punish him for his hypocrisy on Nov. 3, when he faces Democratic challenger Jamie Harrison at the ballot box.

“He may win by less, but he’s not going to lose,” Robert Jeffrey, a Wofford College government professor, told the Washington Examiner.

South Carolina conservatives are wary of Graham, given his reputation for vacillating between the political spectrum’s far-right and center depending on the electoral calendar, according to Jeffrey. Voters still remember his early opposition to President Trump and his pro-immigration leanings.

But South Carolina Republicans want a GOP-controlled Senate, and Barrett’s hearings gifted Graham with an opportunity to showcase his leadership and a venue to make zingy statements. He even earned praise from Democratic ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein at their conclusion.

“It’s going to help him. No question about it,” Jeffrey said, mentioning social media posts he’d seen in his own online network. “They know that he’s a primer in some ways in order to get reelected, but at the end of the day, they hold their nose and vote for him because look at the alternative.”

Graham and Harrison are considered to be in a toss-up contest by nonpartisan prognosticators such as the Cook Political Report and RealClearPolitics.

The three Quinnipiac University South Carolina polls conducted since July found Graham and Harrison were tied, while other pollsters separated them by single percentage-point margins, exchanging the lead at different times.

But even with a strong anti-Trump turnout and an active, well-funded opponent in Harrison, Jeffrey believed South Carolina’s demographic composition hadn’t changed enough for Graham to be ousted.

“I don’t know how much gaslighting is going on by these polls,” he said. “I don’t think there’s the votes to beat Lindsey. There’s still a Republican majority in South Carolina.”

The Graham-Harrison money race was similarly close until recently. Graham raised $30 million to Harrison’s $28.6 million as of June 30. But last weekend, Harrison, a former Ivy League-educated teacher, legislative aide, and lobbyist, announced he brought in $57 million during the past three months alone, more than doubling Beto O’Rourke’s Senate quarterly cash haul record of $20 million.

Harrison’s effort apparently rattled Graham, with the ex-defense attorney with the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps alluding to it during Barrett’s hearings.

“I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I can tell you there’s a lot of money being raised in this campaign. I’d like to know where the hell some of it’s coming from. But that’s not your problem,” he told the judge Tuesday.

The following day Graham revealed he raised $28 million during the third financial quarter, the most by any Republican. But he later raised eyebrows by appealing for more help outside the hearing room, inside a federal building, infringing Senate ethics rules.

“I think people in South Carolina are excited about Judge Barrett. I don’t know how much it affected fundraising today, but if you want to help me close the gap, LindseyGraham.com, a little bit goes a long way,” he said.

He projected confidence, claiming to have “never felt better” before the final phase of a campaign.

“I think the contest in South Carolina has taken on sort of a national profile,” he said. “I think what’s happened in my case is that I stood up for Kavanaugh, and that made some people pretty upset on the Left. And I’ve been helping President Trump. But I trust the people of South Carolina to get it right. The state’s not for sale.”

Graham has used his time in Congress this week to push other conservative priorities as well. That includes scheduling a vote on whether to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over his handling of an unfavorable New York Post report into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. But South Carolina Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright was convinced it was all in vain.

For Seawright, Graham’s performance during Barrett’s hearings underscored why he didn’t deserve a fourth term. Seawright cited, for instance, how Graham referred to “the good old days of segregation” while questioning the judge, which the senator defended by saying the comment was “dripping in sarcasm.”

“I don’t know if it helps him, but I do think it gives people even more of a reason to be frustrated, pissed off, and quite frankly, motivated to vote against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina knowing how high the stakes are in this election,” Seawright said. “His arrogance not only emerged through this process, it’s been confirmed.”

Seawright reminded the Washington Examiner the coronavirus pandemic’s health and economic ramifications were weighing more heavily on voters’ minds than the Supreme Court, and for the first time ever, South Carolina had more than 1 million minority registered voters.

“I just think that people make assumptions about what motivates and drives voters based on past experiences,” he said. “We’re not living in conventional times, so conventional wisdom goes out the window.”