Lindsay Graham Drops Out of Presidential Race

On Monday, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham announced he has suspended his campaign for president, effectively immediately, if anybody cares.

When Trump gave out Graham’s cell phone number at a SC campaign stop, Graham answered with a satirical video in which he attempts – multiple times – to destroy his phone. “He needs some time to figure out what he wants to do in this race”, Christie said in an interview in Nashua, N.H., “and I’ll be respectful of that”. Matt Moore, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said Graham’s decision to leave the race will free up a battle for his supporters among establishment-oriented candidates. “And this idea of killing every man, woman and child in the Middle East does not make us safer”, Graham said. He noted his emphasis on national security and improving the nation’s balance sheet, saying he “put forth bold and practical solutions to big problems”.

The three-term congressman did not specify why he is dropping out of the race but in national surveys Graham was accredited with no more than 1 percent support from likely Republican voters. It was Graham, after all, who spoke up last spring in favor of deploying 10,000 ground troops to fight ISIS.

But most of his peers in the Republican race wished Graham the best – now down to 12 main candidates – especially fellow moderate Republicans.

He’s picked up such a small level of support in the presidential race, South Carolina Republican Sen.

A poll shows Donald Trump would win a hypothetical head-to-head contest against either of his two closest Republican US presidential rivals, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, if the election were held today. Should he choose to endorse a candidate before then it could prove critical in his state’s primary.

While he wasn’t able to gain traction in the polls, hovering around 1 percent, Graham made a name for himself in the presidential primary not only as a staunch foreign policy hawk but also as moderate Republicans’ moral compass of sorts.

Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) used YouTube to release his final statement from the campaign.

“Lindsey’s message of serious statesmanship and problem-solving in public affairs, his forthright opposition to policies and attitudes that would endanger our country and reflect poorly on our party, and his genuine decency and humility won him many new admirers”, McCain said.