Christian and Jewish leaders joined with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday to condemn antisemitic staff with prominent positions in the campaigns challenging Graham in the South Carolina primary.
Graham said on a call with reporters that JNS attended that he would not typically criticize the staff of his opponents during a primary campaign, but that he felt compelled to call out Jew-hatred within the GOP.
“If you believe this is a pathway forward to victory in the Republican Party, I want to make sure that you’re proven wrong and I want to do it in a fashion that people in the future will not go down this road because look what happened to the others who chose this foul path,” Graham said. “I want to put an exclamation point on my disgust for this.”
Graham faces two main challengers in the race: Paul Dans, a former official in the first Trump administration, and Mark Lynch, a local business owner.
In 2025, Dans’ communications director, Vish Burra, was fired from One America News Network for posting an AI-generated video captioned “vermin” in which a room with Stars of David on the door had occupants shown as cockroaches.
In June of that year, Lynch’s political director Evan Mulch posted a photo of himself with his foot on an English translation of the Talmud, which he called a “hate-filled book towards Jesus Christ” that “says horrible things about Jesus” and “is the foundational understanding of today’s Jewish religion.”
The two also frequently criticize Israel in vitriolic and conspiratorial terms.
Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said he was “stunned, shocked and revolted by the lurid and blatant antisemitism” from Burra and Mulch.
“I cannot believe that any viable candidate for statewide office in South Carolina has not publicly repudiated these remarks and fired these individuals,” Reed said.
Rabbi Yossi Refson, the head of Chabad of Charleston, thanked Graham for making a point of calling out Jew-hatred within his own party despite South Carolina’s small Jewish population and the even smaller number of Jewish Republicans.
“Since Oct. 7, we have seen antisemitism rise in a way which many of us would never have imagined in the United States,” Refson said. “When it appears in the Republican Party, a party which has been one of the strongest supporters of Israel, a party whose values are inspired and informed by faith, that is something which we have to confront with honesty and tenaciousness and clarity.”
Dans responded to the accusations with a personal attack on Graham.
“These pastors and religious leaders need to take Graham in the back room and explain to him biblical morality,” Dans wrote. “I’m a Christian father of five and Graham is a homosexual. These faith leaders are slanderous hypocrites.”
Graham, who has never married, has previously said he is not gay.
Lynch told JNS that Graham “is an existential threat to both the nation of Israel and the United States.”
“Lindsey Graham is responsible for the deaths of countless Jews in Israel by the fact that he has sent tens of millions of dollars to al-Qaeda, Hamas and Al-Nusra Front—funding the enemies of Israel,” Lynch said. “Lindsey Graham has actively aided the Islamic invasion of America, causing a grave national security threat for every American and every South Carolinian.”
Lynch has previously said that he would seek to “ban Islam.”
Graham told a reporter on Tuesday that Lynch’s anti-Muslim statements were “un-American.”
“There are thousands of Muslims serving in the military,” Graham said. “What do you tell them?”
“People who say that can’t win, nor should they win,” he added.
Other Jewish and Christian leaders who condemned the Dans and Lynch campaigns included Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Sandra Hagee Parker, chairman of Christians United for Israel.
There is not extensive polling in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, but a March poll sponsored by Lynch showed Graham with a 20 percentage-point lead.
The primary will be held on June 9.
