South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham could be in trouble on Election Day.
With roughly 27 days until the Nov. 3 election, the Republican lawmaker, who was first elected to the Senate in 2002, is now in a “toss-up” race against Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which is dedicated to tracking and polling political campaigns.
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The shift from “lean Republican” on Wednesday comes nearly five months after the website changed the contest rating from “solid” red to to “likely Republican,” and about two months after they altered it from the latter to “Lean Republican win,” underscoring how Harrison has made the race competitive.
Harrison, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, has out-raised and out-spent Graham for much of the election cycle, and he has a higher favorability rating than the incumbent senator.
Harrison has spent or reserved more than $60 million worth of ads through Election Day on television and digital, while Graham has spent approximately one-third of that amount. PACs are helping both campaigns. Additionally, the Democrat raised $14 million during the second quarter, which is much higher than Graham’s $8.4 million, according to Politico.
The significant difference in fundraising has led the South Carolina senator to ask for campaign contributions during multiple appearances on Fox News over the past few weeks.
“I’m getting overwhelmed,” Graham said during one appearance on Sean Hannity’s show. “LindseyGraham.com. Help me. They’re killing me, money-wise. Help me. You helped me last week — help me again. LindseyGraham.com.”
Graham, a close ally to President Trump, is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and, as such, is poised to oversee the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett this month. He is also leading a high-profile inquiry into the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
