Project 2025 author Paul Dans drops primary challenge to Lindsey Graham in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Paul Dans, a chief architect of Project 2025, has shuttered his Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, in a contest set to test the loyalties of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in this year’s midterm election.

Dans pulled out Friday, the last day to remove his name from ballots before the state's primary on June 9.

Trump — who long ago endorsed Graham, among his top congressional allies — reacted to the announcement with a social media post suggesting that Tucker Carlson's endorsement of Dans had been the "KISS OF DEATH” for his campaign.

Trump and Carlson have been feuding over the Iran war, which the former Fox News star called “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Dans denied his decision to withdraw had anything to do with Carlson.

Dans said he was endorsing another Republican in the contest, appliance business owner Mark Lynch. In another social media post, Trump said Lynch “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party” if elected.

Dans rose to prominence as one of the people behind Project 2025, which was a blueprint for conservative governance if Trump won his comeback campaign. He said he was pleased with some of Trump's progress after taking office — including federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs — but there was “more work to do” in the Senate.

“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans told The Associated Press last year. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, often commuted on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint included chapters written by leading conservative thinkers.

Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot. A half-dozen other Republican candidates remain in the race, and Graham's campaign said Monday it had more than $11.6 million cash on hand, raising nearly $1.4 million in the first quarter of this year.

Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state’s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, to chair his 2026 run.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.