The architect of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a primary campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.
He announced his long-shot candidacy Monday in an interview with the Associated Press ahead of a formal launch planned for Wednesday. He joins a crowded field of primary challengers that also includes former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer and local businessman Mark Lynch.
Graham, seeking his fifth term in the Senate, previously received President Donald Trump’s endorsement but has butted heads with the president in recent months on the administration’s stance on abortion rights, investigations into Jan. 6 prosecutors and the more than 1,000 pardons for rioters convicted for their involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In an interview with the Associated Press published Monday, Dans said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”
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“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans told the AP. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”
Dans stepped away from Heritage in July 2024 in what initially appeared to be an amicable separation. National Review later reported Dans was fired from his position at Heritage due to “a number of related issues, including his dismissive and unprofessional approach to interacting with a number of his colleagues.”
Dans rejected any allegations of professional misconduct, telling National Review he was fired after speaking out against Heritage President Kevin Robert’s “violent rhetoric” at a time when the organization was trying to publicly distance itself from Trump.
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Graham’s campaign and co-manager of Trump’s 2024 bid, told NOTUS that Dans’ Senate campaign would “end prematurely.”
“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” LaCivita said in an emailed statement to NOTUS.
Lynch, another primary challenger, welcomed Dans to the race in a Monday post on X, saying, “With his policy experience at the Heritage Foundation, Paul Dans would make a good legislative staffer, and I’d even consider adding him to my advisory committee in my run for U.S. Senate.”
Graham’s challengers face long odds, as the incumbent senator has successfully batted away primary challengers in recent years, including in a 2020 race in which he secured the GOP nomination over three lesser-known candidates.
Graham’s campaign did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
On the other side of the aisle, pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews is the only Democrat to declare her candidacy so far.
She faces an uphill battle due to the state’s increasingly Republican tilt in recent cycles. Trump won South Carolina by nearly 18 percentage points over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.
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