Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will get a primary challenge in the 2026 midterm elections.

Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer launched his campaign for U.S. Senate Wednesday morning.

“Today, I am officially announcing my campaign for U.S. Senate,” Bauer said.

“As a proven conservative fighter, I will unapologetically stand with President Trump and the America First agenda and will fight to put South Carolina first — 100% guaranteed!” he added.

Watch Bauer’s campaign ad below:

Today, I am officially announcing my campaign for U.S. Senate.

As a proven conservative fighter, I will unapologetically stand with President Trump and the America First agenda and will fight to put South Carolina first — 100% guaranteed!

Join the fight: https://t.co/GWn9xW9i9g pic.twitter.com/jRS0l1kEGN

— André Bauer (@AndreBauerSC) July 2, 2025

Fox News shared additional details:

Graham in February kicked off his campaign for a fifth six-year term representing the red state of South Carolina in the Senate.

The senator was endorsed by Trump in March and this week he announced that veteran Republican consultant Chris LaCivita, who served as co-chair of the president’s 2024 campaign to win back the White House, was coming on board as his re-election campaign’s senior advisor.

Bauer – who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2010 (in an election won by now-former governor, former ambassador to the U.N. and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley) and Congress in 2012 after serving eight years as the Palmetto State’s lieutenant governor – touted his Trump and MAGA credentials.

“One of the first leaders in the country to endorse Trump in early 2016, André has been on the front lines of the America First movement, and has stood firmly with Trump on every issue,” his campaign touted in their email release. “André is a proven conservative fighter who will unapologetically stand with President Trump and put South Carolina first.”

Bauer stood alongside Trump at the South Carolina Statehouse in January 2023, as the former president announced his leadership team in the key early-voting primary state.

“I think Graham’s been there too long, and he votes like it,” Bauer told the Associated Press.

“I’m guaranteed, I’m conservative, and I don’t think he is,” he added.

“Once every 6 years, he gets conservative,” Bauer said, according to Associated Press reporter Meg Kinnard.

“The rest of the time he votes with the Democrats,” he added.

NEW: Ex-Lt Gov @AndreBauerSC tells me tonight he's launching his bid to primary Lindsey Graham, whom he says is too liberal for SC.

“Once every 6 years, he gets conservative,” Bauer said, of Graham.

“The rest of the time he votes with the Democrats.”https://t.co/ThetQ72I4h

— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) July 2, 2025

More from the Associated Press:

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.