Paul Dans, the chief architect behind Project 2025, formally launched a Republican primary challenge to long-serving US Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, according to a report published by The Associated Press on Monday. Dans told the American news agency that the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and program cuts are precisely what he aimed for in drafting the Project, which he believes still has “more work to do,” especially in the Senate.
“What we have done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans told AP. “If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That is the headwaters of the swamp.”
Dans, who is set to formally announce his run in Charleston, asserted that Graham should be replaced.
Campaign Clash: Trump Ally vs. Outsider
Chris LaCivita, senior adviser to Graham’s campaign and co-manager of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, dismissed Dans as an opponent whose campaign will “end prematurely”. He recalled Dans’s attempts to undermine Trump in 2024, framing this challenge as the one at odds with Trump’s loyalty to Graham.
Despite occasional friction, Trump had early on endorsed Graham, who has chaired his Senate campaign with heavyweight South Carolina Republicans such as Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster. Graham appears to have built a strong financial lead, with a well-stocked campaign war chest, the report said.
Crowded Field Shaping Up
Ahead of the 2026 midterms, other candidates are already declaring interest, including former Lt. Gov. André Bauer and Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews. Though Graham has fended off challengers in past elections, the growing field, experts say, point toward shifting dynamics in the state’s GOP base.
Graham addressed other issues on NBC’s Meet the Press, including disgraced financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein-related document releases, but did not focus directly on his reelection plans.
Dans’s Conservative Boot Camp
An attorney by training, Dans served in the first Trump administration as liaison to the Office of Personnel Management before moving to Heritage Foundation work in Charleston. He recalled compiling Project 2025 in his own kitchen, calling it a policy playbook to “deconstruct the administrative state,” and crediting the Trump administration with making inroads toward that goal.
“To be clear, I believe that there is a ‘deep state’ out there, and I am the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,” AP quoted Dans as saying.
Project 2025 faced backlash in 2024 for certain of its proposals, including the ones on mass firings to budget slashing. Trump had, at the time, publicly distanced himself from the campaign, promoting his own “Agenda 47” instead.
According to the report, Dans’s campaign kickoff will feature a prayer breakfast and event at a historic Charleston venue.
