The author of Project 2025 plans to primary South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Graham is seeking his fifth term representing South Carolina in the upper chamber. Paul Dans said it’s time for Graham —who’s served in the U.S. Senate since 2003 — to leave politics. Dans briefly served as chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s first term, but is best known for his work with the Heritage Foundation.
While working for that right-wing think tank, Dans grouped together the asks of scores of conservative organizations and turned that into an action plan for Republican lawmakers and presidential administrations. He described this project as a means of “systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state.”
Speaking to CNN, Dans said Graham wasn’t suitably on board with the modern conservative movement.
“He’s a 70-year-old childless warmonger and he has no stake in the future of this country,” Dans said. “He is the very reason that MAGA started in the first place, and we only have to look at 2016 when he was a vehement Trump hater. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
Graham received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in March and support from top Republican lawmakers in South Carolina — including Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen. Tim Scott — but Dans said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies and other South Carolina politicians.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, though experts argued that his role in the project is clear. Dans quit his leadership role in the initiative last year.
“I feel like Trump has endorsed me already, and he does that every day when his administration moves out and does great conservative actions that are reflected in Project 2025,” Dans told NBC News.
Dans is set to launch his campaign on Wednesday with a prayer breakfast and kickoff event in Charleston.
