People Have A Lot Of Feelings After Lindsey Graham Won Re-Election
Election Day 2020 saw some high stakes, and many Senate Republicans were in the political hot seat — including Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. The longtime South Carolina Senator has been re-elected two times since 2003, and was working hard to achieve a fourth term. Now, with the results in, people all over Twitter have a lot to say. These tweets about Lindsey Graham winning re-election show people have a lot of feelings.
Going into the 2020 election, Graham was facing the very real possibility of being unseated for the first time in years, with a marked threat in opponent Jaime Harrison. A graduate from Yale and Georgetown University Law Center, a leader at the Democratic National Committee, and a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Harrison was a strong challenger to the incumbent. As of Oct. 13, he had raised a state record-breaking $86 million in campaign funding. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't enough. As of 10:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 3, Graham had secured the win in his race, according to The Associated Press.
People on Twitter were quick to denounce Graham's win, and make it clear they were disappointed in the state for not going blue in the race.
Graham had come in for criticism in recent weeks, partly because of his involvement in the hasty confirmation of the Supreme Court's newest conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. In 2016, when former President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia after his Feb. 13 death, Graham urged the Judiciary Committee to hold off on the confirmation process, stating, "I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination." The Senate's Republican majority refused to move forward with even a preliminary vote, allowing Garland's nomination to expire on Jan. 3, 2017 after sitting untouched for 293 days straight.
However, after the former liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Sept. 18, Graham made comments that were in stark contrast with his previous 2016 statements. Just a day after Ginsburg's death, the Committee Chairman announced via Twitter that he would support President Donald Trump "in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg." On average, it takes about 70 days to confirm a Supreme Court justice, from a nomination to a final Senate floor vote. Barrett, who has an extensive record of taking stringent right-wing stances on a number of issues, was confirmed in just 30 days with overwhelming support from Senate Republicans — including Graham.
Graham faced a challenging re-election against Harrison. Before the 2020 election, Republicans held a majority of 53-47, factoring in two Independents who consistently vote in line with Democrats. For Democrats to flip this majority in their favor, they would either need to gain four seats, or — because of the vice president's tie-breaking position in the Senate — three seats and control of the White House. With Graham taking the win in his race, it's another roadblock for Democrats to make that happen.
