IT’s Official: This Ex-Con Turned Reality TV Star Is Running for Senate
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) waltzed through his June primary without much trouble. Despite earlier concern that the occasionally heterodox Republican might face a Tea Party challenge, the incumbent won his primary easily, racking up 57 percent of the vote against a hodgepodge field of six challengers and setting himself up for an easy general election win against a weak Democratic opponent.
But over the weekend, Graham gained a new opponent—one who might not necessarily frighten the incumbent but who should at least add a little flavor to an otherwise dull campaign. Thomas Ravenel, a former state treasurer and once-rising figure in the state Republican party, announced last Friday that he would wage an independent campaign for Graham’s Senate seat.
Ravenel’s not exactly the model candidate. In 2007, shortly after becoming state treasurer, he was arrested for cocaine possession and forced to resign. He served six months in jail and another four months split between a halfway house and home arrest at his mother’s retirement home.
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