Lindsey Graham's Been Pleading for Cash. It's Paid Off

GOP senator from SC raised $1M or so a day for first 2 weeks in October
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 23, 2020 11:54 AM CDT
With SC Race Neck and Neck, Graham Rakes in the Cash
US Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks at a get-out-the vote rally on Saturday in Columbia, SC.   (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Lindsey Graham has continued to rake in campaign cash in the closing days of his bid for a fourth term, raising about $1 million a day for the first two weeks of October. Early Friday, Graham's campaign said it had raised nearly $15 million in the first half of the month, the AP reports. That rate outpaces Graham's third-quarter haul of $28 million, which his campaign said represented the largest amount ever raised by any Republican Senate candidate in a single quarter, in any state. The latest fundraising period ran from Oct. 1 through Oct. 14, encompassing three days of the confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham played a prominent role in the televised process.

Graham's comments on the third day of those hearings—and the last day of the fundraising period in question—prompted an ethics complaint against him from South Carolina Democrats, who claimed Graham had broken Senate ethics rules by making a campaign fundraising appeal while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill. Graham has said he didn't believe he'd broken any ethics rules. Fundraising by both Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison has been massive. In the third quarter of this year, Harrison raised $57 million, the most ever brought in by a Senate candidate in a quarterly fundraising period, in any state. Harrison's campaign has not released any figures for its own October fundraising. Some polling has shown a tied race, while in other surveys, either Graham or Harrison has a slight lead. ("I'm being killed financially," Graham said in a September plea for donations.)

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