Over the past thirty years, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham has been one of Congress's chief warmongers. He is a proud War Hawk. Throughout his tenure in both chambers, Graham has championed regime change wars and a very hawkish, interventionist foreign policy. Senator Graham has a long history of flip-flopping and changing positions that best benefit his political career. However, the most consistent aspect of Senator Graham's political career is his championship of war across the world. This includes regime change and US-backed military coups in various countries in crisis. For example, during the 2019 Venezuelan Presidential crisis, Graham repeatedly called for US intervention to overthrow President Nicholas Maduro's government. Graham believed the leftist politician was legitimately elected and advocated for the installation of right-wing National Assembly Speaker, Juan Guaido. In fact, Graham went further and called for the Trump administration to enact extreme economic sanctions on Venezuela for Maduro's presumptive victory in the election. Consequently, the economic sanctions caused supply shortages, leading to hunger and poverty rates drastically rising in the country. Graham, for his part, felt justified in the action and has yet to advocate for a different policy in the South American country. 

During the 118th Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham voted against several anti-war, non-interventionist measures. For example, US Senator and fellow Republican, Rand Paul, presented two war powers resolutions that Graham voted against. The resolutions involved withdrawing the US military presence in both Syria and the Republic of Niger. While a majority of the Senate voted against the resolution, Graham's vote highlights his long support for military interventionism overseas. In addition, Senator Graham voted against S. 316, which was the full repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Force in Iraq. It must be noted that Senator Graham was an ardent supporter of the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. During the 2021 US Military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Graham loudly condemned the action and called it "dumber than dirt." Interestingly, Senator Graham supported the withdrawal during the first Trump administration. However, he quickly reversed course when President Biden gained power and actually saw the withdrawal operation through. 

Graham has long called himself a principled, hardline fiscal conservative. Interestingly, Graham has never once advocated for fiscal restraint regarding the ever-growing US defense budget. Despite the Pentagon failing an audit for the past seven years, Graham has continued to push for more spending for the US Department of Defense. The Pentagon's failed audits have gone unnoticed by Graham, who clearly forgets the idea of fiscal conservatism. 

More recently, Senator Graham stated on the Senate floor that regime change was needed in Iran. Graham celebrated the strikes by both Israel and the United States. Graham was a vocal opponent of the Iran Nuclear Deal and advocated for its elimination. This is not the first time Graham has supported aggressive action toward Iran. On November 06, 2010, Graham called for a preemptive strike on Iran. Graham's rationale for such aggression was to weaken the Iranian regime in any way possible. While this did not occur, Graham has continued to stoke the fire of war between the US and Iran. Public polling has made it clear that a large majority of Americans do not want to go to war with Iran. Graham, however, has ignored such polling and continued to coerce the Trump administration to further escalate the conflict. 

FEC DATA:

Lockheed Martin PAC - $33,000
Boeing PAC - $40,000
L3Harris Technologies PAC - $7,000
Leidos PAC - $2,000
Northrop Grumman PAC - $38,500
Raytheon - $36,500
General Dynamics - $28,000
BAE Systems - $28,000
Antenum Services PAC - $8,500