Former South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has announced that he will run as an independent against longtime U.S Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
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Ravenel filed 17,000 signatures Monday to qualify as an alternative candidate in the November general election. The state election officials will need to verify 10,000 for his candidacy to become official.
Ravenel has also been a regular feature on the Bravo reality television show “Southern Charm.”
Ravenel will face the well-funded and well-connected Lindsey Graham, who defeated a gaggle of Republican candidates in a landslide primary victory in early June. The closest candidate was Lee Bright, who received 15 percent of the vote.
Graham needed at least 50 percent to avoid a runoff and got 57.
Still, Ravenel is getting some support from South Carolina Republican grassroots activists.
“It is time for people to stand up and fight against the special interests, corporations and the military industrial complex,” Charleston County GOP executive committeeman Billy Hall announced on his Facebook page. “It’s time to change Washington! As of today, I will be resigning my position as Executive Committeeman to support Thomas Ravenel for the U.S. Senate!”
Daniel Encarnacion, former director of the South Carolina Republican Liberty Caucus, also spoke out on Facebook:
After a lot of thoughtful consideration and after discovering very few reasons even from proponents of Lindsey Graham to re-elect him, I’ve decided to oppose his re-election and urge you to do the same and consider an alternative — Thomas Ravenel. I’m a lifelong Republican who believes in liberty, free markets, and personal freedom and Ravenel is totally in sync with those views.
In an interview with Rare, Encarnacion doubled down on those statements.
“This is a tremendous difference from past elections. When you have a three man race anything can happen — it changes the whole dynamic,” he said. The other candidate referenced is Democratic nominee Brad Hutto.
There is actually a fourth candidate, Victor Kocher, who is running on the Libertarian ticket, but Encarnacion believes Ravenel will soak up those votes.
Encarnacion said Ravenel’s money, resources, liberty-focused ideas and experience as State Treasurer are his electable qualities, and if he campaigns aggressively “his chances are even with the other candidates.”
The one caveat with Ravenel is his checkered past, including a 10 month stint in federal prison for drug charges.
In an interview with Politico he handled the questions well, however, calling himself “arrogant” for what he’d done.
“I’m not a perfect messenger,” Ravenel said, “But those so-called perfect people with those blemish-free backgrounds are the people that are running the Republic into the ground. My skeletons are out there for everyone to see.”
“Listen to me, listen to my ideas,” he added.
Encarnacion doesn’t believe Ravenel’s history will come back to bite him. “If people move past those mistakes and do what they’re supposed to do, people forget these things,” he said.