{"id":99703,"date":"2025-07-28T15:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99703\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:38:14","slug":"project-2025-author-dans-challenges-sen-graham-in-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/99703\/","title":{"rendered":"Project 2025 author Dans challenges Sen. Graham in South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A chief architect of Project 2025<\/a>, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a> in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Donald Trump<\/a> and his MAGA movement in next year\u2019s midterm election.<\/p>\n

Dans told The Associated Press the Trump administration\u2019s federal workforce reductions<\/a> and cuts to federal programs<\/a> are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025<\/a>. But he said there\u2019s \u201cmore work to do,\u201d particularly in the Senate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,\u201d Dans said in an AP interview. \u201dIf you look at where the chokepoint is, it\u2019s the United States Senate. That\u2019s the headwaters of the swamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and \u201cit\u2019s time to show him the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot in what is fast becoming a crowded field ahead of the November 2026 midterm election that will determine control of Congress<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listens to journalists at the end of his visit to Israel, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, 2024. (AP Photo\/Maya Alleruzzo, File)<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listens to journalists at the end of his visit to Israel, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, 2024. (AP Photo\/Maya Alleruzzo, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner<\/a> of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state\u2019s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott<\/a> and Gov. Henry McMaster<\/a>, to chair his 2026 run<\/a>. He has amassed millions of dollars in his campaign account. <\/p>\n

Other candidates, including Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andr\u00e9 Bauer<\/a>, a wealthy developer, and Democratic challenger Dr. Annie Andrews<\/a>, have announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season, more than a year away.<\/p>\n

Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d did not discuss his reelection campaign but fielded questions on topics including his push to release \u201cas much as you can\u201d from the case files on Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, something many of Trump\u2019s supporters want the government to do<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump\u2019s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.<\/p>\n

After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025<\/a>. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce<\/a>, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, I believe that there is a \u2018deep state\u2019 out there, and I\u2019m the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,\u201d Dans said, noting he compiled much of the book from his kitchen table in Charleston. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Feb. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo\/George Walker IV, File)<\/p>\n

Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Feb. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo\/George Walker IV, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Among the goals, he said, was to \u201cdeconstruct the administrative state,\u201d which he said is what the Trump administration has been doing, pointing in particular to former Trump adviser Elon Musk\u2019s work<\/a> at the Department of Government Efficiency<\/a> shuttering federal offices.<\/p>\n

Dans and Heritage parted ways<\/a> in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025. It catapulted into political culture<\/a> that summer during the presidential campaign season, as Democrats and their allies<\/a> showcased the hard-right policy proposals \u2014 from mass firings to budget cuts \u2014 as a dire warning of what could come in a second Trump term. <\/p>\n

Trump distanced himself from Project 2025<\/a>, and his campaign insisted it had nothing to do with his own \u201cAgenda 47.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dans is launching his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by a kick-off event at a historic venue in Charleston.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http:\/\/x.com\/MegKinnardAP<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":99704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[65175,65174,14199,84,69,90,66,57,330,20991,15053,16541,50,65173,80,32857,53952,3036,51133,61,67,370,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-99703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-andr-bauer","10":"tag-annie-andrews","11":"tag-charleston","12":"tag-district-of-columbia","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-elections","15":"tag-elon-musk","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-government-programs","18":"tag-henry-mcmaster","19":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","20":"tag-lindsey-graham","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-paul-dans","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-sc-state-wire","25":"tag-senate-elections","26":"tag-south-carolina","27":"tag-tim-scott","28":"tag-u-s-news","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-united-states-government","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114931610937582400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}