South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has launched a new political action committee for “testing the waters” for a presidential run in 2016. The Republican, in his third term, has started Security Through Strength, a PAC that bluntly describes itself as a group to “fund the infrastructure and operations allowing Graham to travel the country, listen to Americans, and gauge support for a potential presidential candidacy.”
The PAC appears to have a website and at least two staff members, including Graham’s campaign manager Scott Farmer and treasurer Thad Westbrook.
“Lindsey Graham has earned a reputation as a conservative problem-solver and one of the strongest proponents of a robust national defense,” reads the PAC’s website. “A frequent visitor to American troops stationed overseas for on-the-ground assessments, Graham has consistently pushed for outcomes in the War on Terror which protect our long-term national security interests. One leading conservative recently wrote that when it comes to defending America, “[Lindsey] Graham has been right about more things on foreign policy for longer than just about anyone…if anyone has bragging rights on foreign policy, it is Graham.”
Graham’s interest in running for president was first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Stephen Hayes, back in October:
Graham has long been one of the most active and outspoken hawks in Congress. He has been a voluble critic of the Obama administration on a wide variety of national security issues—Guantánamo Bay, Benghazi, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, and others. Unlike many of his colleagues, Graham often first seeks to engage the administration privately as it debates policy with the hope that he can help shape the outcome rather than just criticize it after the fact.
But Graham no longer trusts Obama enough to engage him on these matters.
Graham won his third term to the Senate in November with 55 percent of the vote.
