VP Pence stumps in SC one week before Election Day to boost Graham’s Senate bid
Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Greenville Tuesday in a bid for Republican incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham as the three-term senator is locked in a close race with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison.
Pence came to South Carolina the day after the Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. The vice president also made two campaign stops in North Carolina.
Confirming conservative judges to the Supreme Court as well as other federal judge positions is a rallying cry for conservative voters. Graham is the judiciary committee chairman and led Barrett’s confirmation hearings, putting him in the spotlight less than a month before the election.
Pence’s visit comes as the race between Graham and Harrison has tightened in the polls and has fueled record fundraising and a slew of campaign ads. In the last 11 days of the election, $17.8 million in digital, radio and television advertising is planned in the state, according to ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics.
Tuesday, about half of the packed crowd of 2,200 people in the airplane hanger at Donaldson Airport wore masks. The rally became standing room-only before attendees were asked to put on face coverings and masks amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to helping Graham, the upstate rally in a more conservative part of the state was aimed to rally people to go to polls by Nov. 3.
Much of Pence’s speech was about President Donald Trump’s initiatives and the economy under the president’s first three years in office, before the pandemic. But the vice president praised Graham and his work in confirming more than 200 judges in that time period, including Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett.
“He topped it off yesterday by leading the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett,” Pence said. “The rule of law has no greater champion than your senator. So right after you re-elect President Donald Trump, we need South Carolina to re-elect Senator Lindsey Graham for six more years in a landslide.”
Close polls in SC race
Cindy duPont, of Columbia, had been to eight Trump rallies before Tuesday and wasn’t expecting to see Pence in the Palmetto State during the General Election season.
“We figured that South Carolina is so red, Trump wouldn’t need to come here, and I think that Pence came to the Greenville area in order to help pull Lindsey across the line,” duPont said.
She said she never thought she would vote for Graham again because of his previous moderate stances and position on Trump.
“But when he defended Kavanaugh, my heart melted,” duPont said. “All is forgiven. And I said, ‘I am on the Graham train, I have given money. I’ve supported him. I will vote for him.’ But the part of me still wants him to have to sweat a little. I think he’s gonna win, but he needs to sweat a little.”
Having a candidate from the presidential ticket come to South Carolina, a state that traditionally votes Republican in statewide elections, is an indicator the Senate race is close. Most competitive elections in the state usually take place during the June primaries, said Danielle Vinson, a professor of politics and international affairs at Furman University.
An Oct. 15 New York Times/Siena College poll had Graham up six points, but a Morning Consult poll put Harrison up two points.
“You kind of hit two birds with one stone with this visit,” Vinson said. “The location, it being in South Carolina is certainly meant to shore up Lindsey Graham, but, because of the media market, it also gets them some publicity in North Carolina, which is a presidential concern.”
Vinson said Graham is being rewarded for being a staunch ally of the president.
“Graham has been very supportive of them, so goodness knows, if loyalty is any indication of Trump’s loyalty, he would feel compelled to help Lindsey out,” Vinson said.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 6:18 PM with the headline "VP Pence stumps in SC one week before Election Day to boost Graham’s Senate bid."
