COLUMBIA – Are South Carolina Republicans ready for Sen. Lindsey Graham to run for president as he advised them to be this weekend?
Depends on who you ask.
Speaking in Columbia Friday night, Graham was about as clear he could be — without actually saying it — that he intends to join a crowded GOP field in running for the White House.
"As to where we go and what I do and what happens in the coming weeks and months, get ready," Graham told the activists who filled a ballroom during the state party's Silver Elephant Dinner. "Get ready."
"Get ready for a debate that's been long overdue within the party," he continued in remarks punctuated by applause. "Get ready for a voice that understands you can't save America without somebody willing to sacrifice and die for America.
"To our enemies, get ready because there's a new way of doing business coming," he said. "To our friends, get ready for the America you used to know."
South Carolina's senior senator has been talking about a national campaign all year — just as he begins a third term in the Senate — and has traveled repeatedly to the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire as he "tests the waters."
He demonstrated his political prowess within South Carolina less than a year ago when he won the GOP nomination for his Senate seat decisively, beating back six challengers with more than 56 percent of the vote.
Graham has enlisted influential Republicans for his potential presidential campaign, such as Greenville lawyer David Wilkins, a former speaker of the South Carolina House who was rewarded with the U.S. ambassadorship to Canada for backing George W. Bush.
Graham argues that high voter interest in national security this cycle gives him an opportunity since that's his forte and what he's known for.
But some Upstate Republicans at the GOP dinner and convention this weekend said they don't see Graham having much of an advantage to win his home state's first-in-the-South presidential preference primary in February.
Rick Beltram, a businessman who used to chair the Spartanburg County Republican Party, said he likes Graham and has enthusiastically supported him in the past.
For president in 2016, however, Beltram said he's looking to governors — particularly former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — "because these rock star senators don't seem to know enough about administration."
"I like Lindsey Graham as a senator," Beltram said. "Whether he can be president or not, he's got to tell me that. I don't know."
Beltram also said he thinks Graham's strong stance in support of Israel has caught the attention of Jewish voters.
"I have a very good friend who is a very affluent Jewish guy in Boca Raton, Florida, and he keeps sending me texts every few days wanting to know whether Lindsey Graham is running," Beltram said.
"So clearly, the Jewish community is very much behind Lindsey Graham, which translates to big money, but does big money translate to votes? That's a question mark."
Graham placed fourth for president in a poll of South Carolina Republicans released by Winthrop University in mid April.
Nearly 55 percent of respondents said they wouldn't consider voting for Graham.
Graham polled weakly among two key constituencies: evangelicals and those who support the tea party. He was supported by 4 percent of evangelicals and 4.4 percent of tea party supporters.
Brent Nelsen, a political science professor at Furman University, said he doesn't think Graham can win the South Carolina primary.
And if Graham joins the field, Nelsen contended, he could diminish South Carolina's importance in picking the next president.
"If he does get some traction, it could actually diminish the importance of the South Carolina primary," Nelsen said.
"Right now, it's the first in the South, and it's important because it's usually neutral ground, and all candidates have to fight equally here.
"If Lindsey's a favorite son in the race, then some candidates are going to simply say I'm going to bypass South Carolina because Lindsey's going to wrap that up.
"And that would make South Carolina a lot less important. So in some ways Lindsey could be hurting the primary as a whole if he really gets some traction."
Graham was one of five White House hopefuls working the crowds and gesticulating behind the podium during the Silver Elephant Dinner and Saturday's state GOP convention.
In his element and among many friends, Graham spoke twice — during the dinner and during the convention.
During a breakfast he sponsored at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, South Carolina Republicans lined the walls to hear him.
Also courting voters in Columbia were Bush, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
