Lindsey Graham announces presidential candidacy, highlighting his personal story

Sen. Lindsey Graham announces his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in Central, S.C. (Photo: Christopher Aluka Berry/Reuters)  

CENTRAL, S.C. — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced himself to the nation here Monday by capitalizing on one of his most valuable political assets: his powerful up-from-nothing personal story.

The 59-year-old lawmaker returned to his birthplace, a 5,000-person town close to Clemson University in the western portion of the state, to announce his entry into an already crowded Republican primary field. He is the ninth Republican candidate to announce his candidacy, with six others expected to jump in.

It was a major event in the small town and in the state, and a point of pride that one of its native sons is running for president and launching his campaign here. Graham made full use of his humble origins, speaking from a raised stage in the middle of Main Street in front of the bar and pool hall that his parents owned, where Graham and his sister were raised in a back room.

Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, nine years her brother’s junior, told the several hundred spectators and a live television audience the story of their upbringing.

“Lindsey and I grew up in one room in the back of those buildings right there,” she said. “Not one bedroom, but one room where we lived, we slept and we ate.”

Looking over the crowd, Darline noted that Lindsey had taught her how to ride a bike “on that sidewalk right over there,” and that she had waited on that same sidewalk years later for the Greyhound bus to bring her older brother back from the University of South Carolina on weekends after he moved away to college.

Then Darline told the story of how she and Lindsey were orphaned when their mother died of Hodgkin lymphoma in 1976 and their father died 15 months later of a heart attack.

Graham and his sister, Darline Graham Nordone. (Photo: Erik S. Lesser/EPA)

“I can remember the day my father passed away, standing in the living room of that house, absolutely scared to death. And Lindsey wrapped his arms around me and promised me that he would always be there for me, and always take care of me. And I can assure he’s done that. He has never let me down,” Darline said.

Graham stood listening inside the doorway of the cinderblock structure, looking down. When Darline introduced him moments later, and he strode to the stage to hug her, Darline’s husband, Larry Nordone, stood in front of the stage, his lips trembling as he applauded. “It’s just the culmination of years of hard times they went through,” Nordone told Yahoo News afterward.

Graham’s speech, on substance, was centered around his foreign policy credentials and his willingness to deal forcefully with America’s challenges abroad and at home.

“I have more experience with our national security than any other candidate in this race. That includes you, Hillary,” Graham said, with a reference to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

But the emotional architecture of the speech was built around Graham’s thankfulness to this town and to the people of his state for helping him become a three-term U.S. senator and now a presidential candidate.

“Everything I am, and everything I will be, I owe to the kindness and generosity and example of people in Central and Clemson and Seneca and Walhalla and other towns and farms of upstate South Carolina. Thank you,” he said, “for everything.”

A woman near the stage called out in response, “Thank you!”

Graham supporters gather in Central, S.C. (Photo: Erik S. Lesser/EPA)

But for all the moving sentiment, Graham’s announcement has introduced some thorny political challenges for people in his state and for others in the presidential contest, particularly former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Much of the money, political support and political operative talent in the state that would be going to Bush has remained uncommitted, at least officially, as Graham has built up to an announcement. Now that he is officially in, it represents a dilemma for some who would like to give money or go work for Bush’s campaign.

As one attendee at Graham’s kickoff event remarked, he was there “to see where this is headed.” Many in the state, and in Republican politics, are wondering the same thing. Graham does not currently break into even the top 10 of announced and likely presidential candidates, receiving the support of just over 1 percent of Republican voters in most polls.

Graham is one of several Republican presidential hopefuls whose candidacies are widely viewed as being less about winning the White House and more to do with having some ulterior motive. Some think it is to rebut Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) non-interventionist foreign policy. Graham himself has given indications he is running in part because he thinks Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is not ready to lead the country.

One attendee on Monday remarked that Graham may be angling to become Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State under a Republican president. That could be something he’d be able to bargain for in the days leading up to the South Carolina primary, currently scheduled for late February of next year, if his support would be crucial to helping one Republican senator win the first-in-the-South primary.

“I’m a man with many debts,” he said. “I’m running for president to repay those debts.”

Graham shakes hands with supporters after announcing his candidacy. (Photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

But Graham is also capitalizing on the many favors owed to him to hold much of the South Carolina political universe in check, out of respect for him.

Graham’s candidacy, however, could gain traction if anxiety among conservatives about national security continues to grow, due to the ongoing military success of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“The world is exploding in terror and violence, but the biggest threat of all is the nuclear ambitions of the radical Islamists who control Iran,” Graham said. “I am running for president because I have the experience, judgment and will to deny the most radical regimes the most dangerous weapons.”

After his speech, Graham headed to a closed-door fundraiser with supporters at Clemson University. He will head to New Hampshire on Tuesday and then to Iowa later this week, which go second and first, respectively, in the primary process. Graham plans to spend much of his time campaigning in these two states over the next several months, since most of the voters there know much less about him than the Palmetto State’s voters do.