Paul Dans, the Project 2025 architect who briefly turned Lindsey Graham’s reelection into a national story, ended his U.S. Senate campaign on Friday afternoon and threw his support to Greenville businessman Mark Lynch. Dans filed his withdrawal notice with the South Carolina State Election Commission at 2:21 p.m. on April 10, 2026 — the final day candidates could strike their names from the June 9 primary ballot. Paul Dans endorses Mark Lynch.
I am proud to endorse @MarkLynchSC and will do everything in my power to get him elected to the U.S. Senate,” Dans wrote on X. In a follow-up statement aimed squarely at the incumbent, he added: “Mr. President we here in South Carolina love you, but we don’t trust Lady Graham to help you put America first [Post and Courier, 2026].
Dans acknowledged the timing was not coincidence. It is true I dropped out of the race today because it was the last day to leave the race and get my name off the ballot,” he said, pointing to Lynch’s war chest as the deciding factor. Mark Lynch has the resources to make that happen.” Lynch, who owns Jeff Lynch Appliance & TV Center, has committed between $4 million and $5 million of his own money to the race, with room to go higher [CNN, 2026].
President Donald Trump responded within the hour on Truth Social, calling Tucker Carlson’s late endorsement of Dans “THE KISS OF DEATH!” and labeling Lynch a “LUNATIC” for backing Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie. Graham, Trump wrote, “GETS THINGS DONE,” adding that “Lindsey has a BIG lead, and is on his way to a spectacular VICTORY [Breitbart, 2026].
Dans exited with campaign finances roughly $63,000 deeper in debt than cash on hand and had already parted ways with his original campaign manager, CJ Westfall, earlier in the winter. Seth Camick finished the campaign as manager. Dans brought endorsements from former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino and S.C. House Freedom Caucus chairman Jordan Pace into Lynch’s camp [Live5News, 2026].
The remaining primary field includes Lynch, Thomas Dismukes, Patrick Herrmann, and a small handful of minor candidates. Graham, who turns 71 in July, is seeking his fifth Senate term.
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Paul Dans Endorses Mark Lynch: A Game-Changer in the Race
1. The MAGA Lane Just Consolidated — and Graham Should Notice
For months the anti-Graham vote was split three ways, with Dans pulling the activist base that reads *Project 2025* as scripture, Lynch pulling the self-funding populist lane, and the minor candidates scraping the rest. That split was Graham’s best friend. It’s now gone.
A Breitbart-commissioned poll in March showed the stakes plainly. On the initial ballot, Graham led Lynch 41 percent to 21 percent — a comfortable but not dominant margin for a four-term incumbent. On the informed ballot, after voters heard basic biographical information about each candidate, the numbers flipped: Lynch 34 percent, Graham 23 percent [Breitbart, 2026]. That is not the profile of an unbeatable senator. That is the profile of a senator whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Dans’ withdrawal rolls his ground game, his endorsers, and his national fundraising list into a single challenger who can actually afford to advertise statewide. Bovino and Pace don’t deliver hundreds of thousands of votes on their own — but they legitimize Lynch with the activist right that was keeping its distance. And a self-funded candidate with $4 million to $5 million in committed money can saturate Pee Dee and Upstate media for six straight weeks if he wants to.
**So what does this mean for you?** If you live in Horry County and you were counting on a split field to protect Graham — or to hand him an easy win you could ignore — that math just changed. Your primary vote on June 9 now matters more, not less. A one-on-one race in a low-turnout primary is decided by whoever shows up. In Horry County, that has historically been a small, disciplined slice of the electorate. You are either part of that slice or you are ceding the decision to someone else.
2. Trump Versus Carlson Is Now a Palmetto State Proxy War
The most revealing line of the day didn’t come from Dans or Lynch. It came from Truth Social, where the president called Tucker Carlson’s endorsement “THE KISS OF DEATH [CNN, 2026]. That is not a throwaway insult. That is a sitting president publicly breaking with the most-listened-to voice on the populist right — and doing it on behalf of Lindsey Graham, of all people.
Graham spent most of the first Trump term as a punching bag for the MAGA base and most of the second as an ally. Trump’s defense of him this week tells you where the White House has landed: Graham is useful, Graham delivers votes in the Senate, and the administration is not going to let Carlson or the Heritage Foundation alumni network pick off a reliable yes vote on judges and appropriations.
Lynch’s embrace of Rep. Thomas Massie — the Kentucky Republican who regularly votes against his own leadership — is what drew the “LUNATIC” label. For Horry County voters, that signals something concrete. A Senator Lynch would caucus with the holdout wing that blocks continuing resolutions and forces shutdown fights. A Senator Graham will keep cutting deals. Which one you prefer depends on what you think the job is.
**So what does this mean for you?** You are being asked to pick a side in a fight between the president you probably voted for and the commentator you probably listen to. There is no neutral option on June 9. A vote for Graham is a vote for Trump’s current posture — work-with-the-system conservatism. A vote for Lynch is a vote for the Massie-Carlson wing that would rather burn the system down than cut another deal. Decide which of those is closer to what you actually want before you walk into the polling place.
3. The Coastal Turnout Problem for Graham Nobody Is Talking About
Graham has always leaned on the coast. Horry, Georgetown, Beaufort, and Charleston counties deliver the retiree-heavy, chamber-of-commerce Republican vote that offsets his weakness in the Upstate. Take that base for granted and the math stops working.
Here is the uncomfortable question for the incumbent: what has Graham delivered for the Grand Strand lately? Ask your neighbors what they’re paying for homeowners insurance now versus five years ago. Ask them what a mile of new pavement on Highway 90 or Highway 701 costs the county, and who in Washington is fighting for that money. Ask them what federal flood policy has done for their premiums since the last reauthorization. The honest answer on most of those questions is “not much, and not recently.”
Dans’ parting shot — that Graham cannot be trusted to put America first — will land harder on the coast than the Graham campaign wants to admit. Not because Horry County voters are ideological purists, but because they are tired of senators who show up at ribbon-cuttings and disappear when the insurance bill arrives.
**So what does this mean for you?** If you are paying more for a smaller house, a worse commute, and a roof policy you can barely afford, the incumbent owes you specifics — not slogans about seniority and committee assignments. Before June 9, look up how Graham voted on the last flood insurance reauthorization, on disaster supplemental funding after the 2024 hurricane season, and on the most recent tax package. If the answers satisfy you, vote accordingly. If they don’t, act accordingly.
4. Project 2025, Repackaged and Self-Funded
Dans is not leaving the field. He is handing his platform to a candidate who can pay to broadcast it. That is the real transaction here, and it deserves to be named plainly.
Dans was the architect of *Project 2025*, the Heritage Foundation policy blueprint that pulled together more than 100 conservative organizations into a single governing plan. He was also forced out of Heritage before the 2024 election once the document became a political liability [Post and Courier, 2026]. Whatever you think of the substance — and Horry County conservatives are split on it — the document is the most detailed plan any faction of the right has produced in a generation. Handing the flag to a self-funder with $4 million means that plan now gets a Senate megaphone if Lynch wins.
That cuts both ways for voters here. If you want the deep state dismantled, the regulatory state rolled back, and the federal workforce restructured, Lynch is now the most direct vehicle you are going to get in a South Carolina primary. If you read *Project 2025* and decided it goes too far — on Social Security, on the civil service, on the Department of Education — then Graham’s coalition with the White House is the alternative. There is no middle candidate left in this race.
**So what does this mean for you?** The abstract debate about *Project 2025* just became a concrete ballot choice for Horry County Republicans. You no longer get to say you support “common-sense conservatism” without picking a lane. Read the plan. Read Graham’s voting record. Pick the one that matches what you actually want Washington to do, not the one whose yard signs you like better.
5. A Six-Week Primary Is a Turnout Primary
From now until June 9, Lynch has roughly eight weeks to turn a consolidated field into a win. Graham has the same eight weeks to prove that March polling was a warning shot, not a forecast. The candidate who mobilizes his base wins. Period.
That is where Horry County comes in. Coastal primary turnout has run below the state average in recent cycles, which means a small number of motivated voters here can swing the margin in a statewide race. If Graham’s coastal firewall holds at 60 percent or better, he probably wins on the first ballot. If Lynch peels off even a third of it, this goes to a June 23 runoff — and runoffs favor the challenger with momentum and cash on hand.
**So what does this mean for you?** Your vote on June 9 is not symbolic. It is arithmetic. Check your registration today. Request an absentee ballot if you travel. Know your polling place. If you care about who represents South Carolina in the U.S. Senate for the next six years, the decision is being made in the next fifty-five days — not in November.
Demand specifics from both campaigns between now and the primary. Ask Graham what he has delivered for the Grand Strand in the last term. Ask Lynch which *Project 2025* recommendations he will actually vote for. Then show up.
### Further Reading
– https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/10/politics/paul-dans-quits-south-carolina-senate-race
– https://www.fitsnews.com/2026/04/10/exclusive-paul-dans-withdraws-from-u-s-senate-race/
