CHAPIN, S.C. – Former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor André Bauer is launching a campaign to challenge Senator Lindsey Graham in the GOP primary, claiming Graham is not conservative enough to serve the state effectively.

Bauer, a successful developer and longtime supporter of former President Donald Trump, is entering a competitive race against Graham, a senator for four terms. Although Graham’s rapport with Trump has fluctuated over time, he still has Trump’s endorsement for his re-election.

Bauer has described himself as “a real, America First conservative” intent on representing what he sees as South Carolina conservatives’ true values.

“I feel that Graham has been in office for too long, and his voting record reflects that,” Bauer mentioned to The Associated Press Tuesday night. “I am a guaranteed conservative, something I don’t believe he truly is.”

Republicans dominate South Carolina’s statewide-elected positions, meaning that the most intense political competition takes place in GOP primaries.

Graham has faced previous primary challenges from the right, with opponents accusing him of kowtowing to Democrats on issues from immigration to climate change. But he also hews to Republican priorities on national security; ahead of last month’s U.S. strike on Iranian facilities, Graham called for Trump to “go all-in” in backing Israel and destroying Iran’s nuclear program.

Graham kicked off his reelection campaign in February, and at least one other Republican has also announced a primary challenge.

He has already secured Trump’s endorsement. This week, Graham’s campaign announced that Chris LaCivita, a co-campaign manager of Trump’s 2024 bid, would serve as a senior adviser. On Tuesday, Abby Zilch, spokeswoman for Graham’s campaign, noted that the senator had earned Trump’s “complete and total endorsement,” adding that Bauer “has spent his career chasing titles to feed his ego.”

Bauer said he understood Trump’s need to use Capitol Hill relationships to advance his legislative priorities, like the tax cuts and spending bill that came before the Senate Budget Committee — which Graham chairs — before passing the chamber earlier Tuesday.

“Trump’s got to work and get his bills passed,” Bauer said. “Lindsey’s chairman of a major committee. … I get what you have to do.”

Bauer has backed Trump since before his win in South Carolina’s 2016 GOP primary. At his 2024 campaign’s South Carolina launch event, Trump called Bauer — who served on his state leadership committee — “a friend of mine, somebody that could I think run for almost any office and win.”

Bauer served in the South Carolina legislature before, at 33, he was elected the youngest lieutenant governor in the country in 2002. After two terms, he mounted an unsuccessful 2010 gubernatorial bid, finishing last in a four-way GOP primary ultimately won by Nikki Haley.

Two years later, Bauer ran for Congress, losing a GOP runoff to eventual Rep. Tom Rice in South Carolina’s newly created 7th District.

Asked how much of his own money he would commit, Bauer declined to give a figure, saying he would “put skin in the campaign” and looked forward to returning to the trail.

“I’m going to cover this state like the dew covers Dixie,” Bauer said. “I think you’re going to see a movement.”

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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP