Lindsey Graham could be 'collateral damage' if Trump's 'big gamble' flops: analysis

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) starts off from an enviably strong position for an incumbent senator seeking re-election — and the smart money is on him sailing through the process with no difficulty. But there is one possible chink in his armor, Kathleen Parker wrote for The Washington Post: his rabid support for the Iran war.

"Graham had some opposition in the Republican primary, slated for June 9, that appeared promising to those who would prefer a new face. One was former lieutenant governor André Bauer, who withdrew last August," wrote Parker. "The other, Paul Dans, an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 whom Tucker Carlson endorsed, also pulled out recently. The remaining GOP candidates — in addition to ones in the Democratic primary — probably don’t justify the time it would take to learn their names."

For evidence of how hard it is to unseat a South Carolina senator, Parker wrote, look no further than former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond. "Voters in one of America’s reddest states didn’t vote Thurmond out of office — ever. The Dixiecrat turned Republican retired in January 2003 at 100, having served 48 years in the U.S. Senate for South Carolina. Whereupon a relatively young Lindsey Graham, now 70, grabbed the baton and hasn’t let go."

Moreover, South Carolina is a state where voters don't currently have much grievance with how things are going.

But should the Iran war start putting greater pressure on voters, Parker wrote, it might be a different story, given it might as well be called "Graham's War" for how enthusiastically he has pushed it — even at the moment, the war is deeply unpopular, and if it continues driving up gas prices, it could only get worse. "If negotiations fail and Trump’s big gamble spirals out of control, Graham will surely become collateral damage."

"An ardent supporter and wingman to the president, Graham won’t be able to distance himself from the Iran debacle should negotiations go south," Parker concluded. "With so much in flux, there’s no telling where the war goes and, therefore, no telling what’s in Graham’s future. If all fails, it will have been Graham’s good fortune that he was able to hone his golf strokes as Trump’s favorite caddy."