Graham ends his 2016 presidential campaign

In a statement, Sen. Given Senator Graham’s huge primary victory in SC just previous year, the Graham network could have a major impact on South Carolina’s presidential primary. I want to thank everyone who’s taken this journey with me. I hope you’re not.

But Graham’s campaign failed to gain traction, even as terrorism became a growing concern among voters in the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, and Paris.

Graham had said from the start of his campaign that he was in the race to help influence the national debate on national security.

“While we have run a campaign that has made a real difference, I have concluded this is not my time”, he said in a news release sent by his campaign Monday morning. “Today, more of my fellow candidates have come to recognize this is what’s needed to secure our homeland”, said Graham.

With just over a month to go until early voting begins in the 2016 race for president, Republican Sen.

Graham’s bid, which never cracked one per cent in primary polls, locked up an unusual amount of elite support. With Graham out, influential South Carolina Republicans who have been loyal to him can begin making new choices among the remaining candidates (a total of 11 were on the stage in Las Vegas last week for a pair of debates televised by CNN).

Graham has suffered from low polling numbers throughout his campaign and his withdrawal from the race comes on the deadline for candidates to remove their names from the SC primary ballot.

Graham “won” by being loose, displaying knowledge and espousing pragmatism in the face of the extreme words that have dominated so much of the agenda in the crowded GOP field. He called the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, “a war we can not afford to lose”, and he repeated his call to “turn back the tide of isolationism that has been rising in the Republican Party”. In New Hampshire, Graham said he won’t abandon his call for an immigration overhaul that includes both improvements in border security and a path to legal status for the millions of people living in the country illegally.

Asked who he would endorse, Graham demurred.

Graham also did not answer a question from CNN on whether he would accept a position in a Trump administration if Trump wins the presidency, saying that he is focused on improving the GOP.