COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has continued to rake in campaign cash in the closing days of his bid for a fourth term, raising about $1 million a day for the first two weeks of October.
Early Friday, Graham’s campaign said it had raised nearly $15 million in the first half of the month. That rate outpaces Graham’s third-quarter haul of $28 million, which his campaign said represented the largest amount ever raised by any Republican Senate candidate in a single quarter, in any state.
The fundraising period ran from Oct. 1 through Oct. 14, encompassing three days of the confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s third nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham played a prominent role in the televised process, introducing members as they spoke and able to opine on his own thoughts regarding her nomination and the legal process in general.
Graham’s comments on the third day of those hearings — and the last day of the fundraising period in question — prompted an ethics complaint against him from South Carolina Democrats, who claimed Graham had broken Senate ethics rules by making a campaign fundraising appeal while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill.