Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham
U.S. Senate, South Carolina
Incumbent
In office
2003-Present
Term ends
January 3, 2015
Years in position	10
Party	Republican
Predecessor	J. Strom Thurmond (R)
Compensation
Base salary	$174,000/year
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 4, 2008
First elected	November 5, 2002
Next election	November 4, 2014
Campaign $	$17,833,932
Term limits	N/A
Prior offices
Representative, U.S. House of Representatives
1995-2002
Representative, South Carolina House of Representatives
1992-1994
City Attorney, Central South Carolina
1990-1994
Education
Bachelor's	University of South Carolina, Columbia, 1977
J.D.	University of South Carolina Law School, 1981
Military service
Service/branch	South Carolina Air National Guard
Years of service	1989-1994
Personal
Birthday	July 9, 1955
Place of birth	Seneca, SC
Net worth	$904,983
Religion	Southern Baptist
Websites
Office website

Lindsey Graham (b. July 9, 1955) is a Republican member of the U.S. Senate from the state of South Carolina. Graham was first elected to the Senate in 2002.

Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack, Graham is a "rank-and-file Republican".

Career

Below is an abbreviated outline of Graham's academic, professional and political career:

• 1977: Received his B.A. from University of South Carolina, Columbia
• 1981: Received his J.D. from University of South Carolina School of Law
• 1982-1988: United States Air Force
• 1989-1995: South Carolina Air National Guard
• 1995-Present: United States Air Force Reserves
• 1988-1992: Served as assistant county attorney, Oconee County, S.C.
• 1990-1994: Served as city attorney for Central, S.C.
• 1992-1994: Served as member of the South Carolina state house of representatives
• 1995-2003: Served as a Republican in the U.S. Congress
• 2003-Present: U.S Senator from South Carolina

Committee assignments

U.S. Senate

2013-2014

Graham serves on the following Senate committees:

• Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Department of Defense
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
• Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on SeaPower
  • Subcommittee on Personnel
  • Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
• Budget
• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Ranking Member
  • Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
  • Subcommittee on The Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights
  • Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights subcommittee

2011-2012

• Appropriations
• Armed Services
• Budget
• Judiciary
• Aging

Issues

Gang of Eight

Graham is a member of the group of senators deemed the "Gang of Eight." This term is used to reference eight of the most influential Senators on immigration reform and includes four senators from each party. The group calls for comprehensive and bipartisan immigration legislation that includes their "four basic pillars":

• 1. A “tough but fair path to citizenship . . . .contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country as required”;
• 2. Reform our legal immigration system with a greater eye toward our economic needs;
• 3. Workplace verification; and
• 4. Setting up a system for admitting future workers (although the term “guest worker” is not used).

Senate Judiciary Committee

Graham was first appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee shortly after he was sworn in in January of 2003. Graham has continued South Carolina's long streak of representation on the Senate Judiciary Committee after Strom Thurmond's death in 2003. Thurmond served on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1967 till his death.

Senator Graham also serves on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs as the Republican Ranking Member, and serves on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on the Constitution and Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

Fiscal Cliff

Graham voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. The bill was passed in the Senate by a 89/8 vote on January 1, 2013.

Drone filibuster

See also: Rand Paul filibuster of John Brennan's CIA Nomination in March 2013

On March 6, 2013, Senator Rand Paul (R) led a 13-hour filibuster of President Obama's CIA Director nominee, John Brennan. Paul started the filibuster in order to highlight his concerns about the administration's drone policies. In particular, Paul said he was concerned about whether a drone could be used to kill an American citizen within the United States border, without any due process involved. Paul and other civil liberties activists have been critical that President Obama did not offer a clear response to the question. A total of 14 senators joined Paul in the filibuster -- 13 Republicans and one Democrat.

Graham spoke out against Rand Paul and those that stood with him, following the filibuster. He said, "To my Republican colleagues, I don’t remember any of you coming down here suggesting that President Bush was going to kill anybody with a drone, do you? They had a drone program back then, all of a sudden this drone program has gotten every Republican so spun up. What are we up to here?"

Elections

2008

On November 4, 2008, Graham won re-election to the United States Senate. He defeated Bob Conley in the general election.

U.S. Senate, South Carolina General Election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Lindsey Graham Incumbent	57.7%	1,076,534
	Democratic	Bob Conley	42.3%	790,621
Total Votes				1,867,155

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Graham is available dating back to 2000. Based on available campaign finance records, Graham raised a total of $17,833,932 during that time period. This information was last updated on April 25, 2013.

Lindsey Graham's Campaign Contribution History
Year	Office	Result	Contributions
2008	U.S. Senate (South Carolina)		$9,713,500
2002	U.S. Senate (South Carolina)		$5,838,233
2000	US House (South Carolina, District 3)		$2,282,199
Grand Total Raised			$17,833,932

2008

Graham won re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2008. During that re-election cycle, Graham's campaign committee raised a total of $9,713,500 and spent $6,596,229.

U.S. Senate, South Carolina General Election, 2008 - Lindsey Graham Campaign Contributions
Total Raised	$9,713,500
Total Spent	$6,596,229
Total Raised by General Election Opponent	$17,105
Total Spent by General Election Opponent	$15,202
Top contributors to Lindsey Graham's campaign committee
Nelson, Mullins et al	$108,541
Scana Corp	$63,130
EnergySolutions LLC	$54,800
Blue Cross/Blue Shield	$50,650
Time Warner	$38,692
Top 5 industries that contributed to campaign committee
Lawyers/Law Firms	$1,463,221
Real Estate	$416,096
Retired	$342,038
Electric Utilities	$270,980
Leadership PACs	$249,000

Analysis

Lifetime voting record

See also: Lifetime voting records of United States Senators and Representatives

According to the website GovTrack, Graham missed 113 of 3,253 roll call votes from January 2003 to April 2013. This amounts to 3.5%, which is worse than the median of 1.7% among current senators as of April 2013.

Congressional staff salaries

See also: Staff salaries of United States Senators and Representatives

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Graham paid his congressional staff a total of $2,593,274 in 2011. He ranks 14th on the list of the highest paid Republican Senatorial Staff Salaries and he ranks 53rd overall of the lowest paid Senatorial Staff Salaries in 2011. Overall, South Carolina ranks 29th in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $2,529,141.70 in fiscal year 2011.

Net worth

See also: Net Worth of United States Senators and Representatives

2011

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Graham's net worth as of 2011 was estimated between $505,987 and $1,303,979. That averages to $904,983, which is lower than the average net worth of Republican Senators in 2011 of $6,358,668. His average net worth increased by 2.63% from 2010.

2010

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Grahams's net worth as of 2010 was estimated between $489,790 and $1,273,783. That averages to $881,786.50, which is lower than the average net worth of Republican Senators in 2010 of $7,054,258.

National Journal vote ratings

2012

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Graham was 1 of 2 members who ranked 33rd in the conservative rankings in 2012.

2011

See also: National Journal vote ratings

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Graham ranked 42nd in the conservative rankings.

Political positions

Percentage voting with party

The website Open Congress tracks how often members of Congress vote with the majority of the chamber caucus. According to the website, Lindsey Graham voted with the Republican Party 87.4 of the time, which ranked 37 among the 47 Senate Republican members in November 2011.

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term Lindsey + Graham + South Carolina + Senate

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

Lindsey Graham News Feed

• Sen. Lindsey Graham on Benghazi: 'Stop the stonewalling' - Fox News
• Taxpayers Feel the Pain of Washington Arm-Twisting - U.S. News & World Report (blog)
• Schumer, Graham Urge Senators To Support Media Shield Bill - TPM
• Why don't South Carolina conservatives like Lindsey Graham? - Washington Post (blog)
• Anti-amnesty group takes on Sen. Graham - PolitiFact
• The plot to oust Lindsey Graham - Washington Post (blog)
• Sen. Graham: Hillary Clinton should testify on Benghazi - USA TODAY
• SC Sen. Lindsey Graham Vows To Drop Immigration Bill Support If It Includes ... - Instinct Magazine (blog)
• Immigration Overhaul Wins Panel's Backing in the Senate - New York Times
• Is Lindsey Graham going to get primaried? - The Week Magazine

Personal

Graham is single.

External links

• Social media:
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
• Biographies:
  • U.S. Congress
  • NNDB
  • Wikipedia
• Political profiles:
  • GovTrack
  • National Journal
  • OpenCongress
  • Project Vote Smart
  • Roll Call
  • CongressMerge
• Fact-checking:
  • FactCheck
  • PolitiFact
• Financial:
  • FEC
  • OpenSecrets.org
  • LegiStorm.com
• Interest group ratings:
  • National Journal
  • Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions:
  • On The Issues
  • Project Vote Smart
• Legislation:
  • Congress.gov
• Public statements:
  • Project Vote Smart
• Voting record:
  • Project Vote Smart
  • Washington Post
• Works by or about:
  • WorldCat
• Media appearances:
  • C-SPAN
  • Charlie Rose
  • IMDb
• Media coverage:
  • Bloomberg
  • New York Times
  • Washington Post

References

Political offices
Preceded by Jim DeMint	U.S. Senate - South Carolina 2003-Present	Succeeded by -