The creator of Project 2025 is expected to launch a primary campaign for one of South Carolina‘s U.S. Senate seats in an effort to oust Lindsey Graham.
Paul Dans, former director at the Heritage Foundation, will be running for Senate in 2026, according to a report from NBC News. He intends to challenge Graham, who has served as a Senator since 2003.
Dans is considered the architect of Project 2025 — the far-right playbook to reshape the federal government by overhauling federal agencies, purging career civil servants, and replacing them with loyalists. It also seeks to limit abortion access, restrict LGBTQ+ rights, dismantle the Department of Education, end diversity programs, and promote “fertility awareness” programs over contraception. Many of its objectives have already been completed or are currently in progress.
Dans orchestrated Project 2025 under the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that seeks to “to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense,” according to its website.
Dans left the organization shortly before the 2024 presidential election after reported pressure from Donald Trump‘s campaign, which was attempting to distance itself from the widely unpopular project. Foundation president Kevin Roberts announced in a July email that Dans would be “departing the team and moving up to the front where the fight remains.” Dans wrote in his own message, “Electoral season is upon us, and I want to direct all my efforts to winning, bigly!”
Graham was once one of the few prominent Republicans willing to criticize Trump, shifting from calling Trump a “kook” and a “bigot” to deeming him “a damn good president.” He has long been one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ members of Congress, despite reports that he’s hired male sex workers who call him Lady G.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: BREAKING: Project 2025’s creator will run against Lindsey Graham for South Carolina Senate