Lindsey Graham Had a Complicated Relationship With Black Voters
“Senator Lindsey Graham, despite his ability to maintain relationships across political divides, struggled to gain support from Black voters in South Carolina, a state where politics remain racially polarized. While he supported some legislation benefiting underserved communities and welcomed the state’s first Black senator, his conservative stances and alignment with President Trump often clashed with the political views of Black voters. Black leaders acknowledged his ability to maintain relationships despite disagreements, but emphasized that his politics did not reflect the majority of Black people’s views.
Mr. Graham, a long-serving senator from South Carolina, was known for his ability to maintain relationships even with his political foes. But the support of Black voters remained elusive.
Over Senator Lindsey Graham’s decades of political service, he charmed many people at home, in Washington and overseas, even if they disagreed with him on politics and policy.
But in South Carolina, where politics remain racially polarized, he was often at odds with one constituency: Black voters, who make up about a quarter of the electorate.
Mr. Graham won only 6 percent of their votes in 2020, according to exit polls. More recently, about 10 percent of Black voters said they approved of how he was handling his job as senator, according to a May Citadel poll. Those voters remain overwhelmingly supportive of Democratic candidates.
“Black folks didn’t elect Graham — not in this red state,” said Elder James Johnson III, the founder of the National Racial Justice Network, a civil rights nonprofit in North Charleston, S.C. “He just wasn’t a household name in the Black community.”
Mr. Graham was elected to the Senate in 2002, succeeding Strom Thurmond.
While Mr. Thurmond had repeatedly resisted integration, Mr. Graham represented a different era of white Southern politician.
He joined calls for the removal of the Confederate flag from the State House in 2015 after a white supremacist killed nine Black churchgoers in downtown Charleston. He backed some legislation with provisions that helped support historically underserved communities. And he helped welcome the state’s first Black senator, Tim Scott, who is Republican.
“He had the ability to make you feel welcome when you are going to do something that has never been done before,” said Mr. Scott, now the state’s senior senator, in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Mr. Graham, he said, always seemed “to want to embrace you and accept you.”
But Mr. Graham faced pushback over his conservative stances, especially as he morphed from critic to stalwart ally of President Trump after the 2016 campaign.
“South Carolina will definitely miss Lindsey,” said Adolphus Jones, the president of the Union County chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., outside Greenville. “But even though we’re going to miss him, his politics were not reflective of the majority of Black people’s politics.”
At times, his comments rankled some Black voters, including his suggestion during a 2020 televised forum that “if you’re a young African American, an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state — you just need to be conservative.”
That same year, he was criticized for referencing “the good old days of segregation” while questioning Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing. Mr. Graham said he made those comments “with deep sarcasm.”
On Sunday, however, some Black leaders in South Carolina offered their condolences to Mr. Graham’s family, emphasizing the senator’s ability to maintain relationships despite often-intense political disagreements.
“Our political relationship was sometimes partisan and passionate, but always pleasant and productive on behalf of the people of South Carolina,” said Representative James E. Clyburn, the lone Black Democrat in the House from South Carolina.
Jaime Harrison, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Graham for the Senate seat in 2020, said in a statement on Sunday, “I always appreciated that even in our fiercest political battles, we could still share a conversation, a laugh, and a mutual respect for South Carolina and the institutions we were both privileged to serve.”
Minho Kim and Ruth Igielnik contributed reporting from Washington.
Eduardo Medina is a Times reporter covering the South. An Alabama native, he is now based in Durham, N.C.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.“
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