Laura Ingraham Floats Campaign To Primary Lindsey Graham Over Immigration Reform

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham has said that she will look into challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) because of his support for comprehensive immigration reform, furthering her campaign of demanding that Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill.

During her June 25 radio show, Ingraham cited Graham's policies on Syria and immigration reform to tell residents of South Carolina:

INGRAHAM: I don't care who you find -- oh, I do care who you find. We need a smart, savvy, Reagan conservative to run against Lindsey Graham in the 2014 election. He needs to be defeated, primaried, and we need to win that seat with a Reagan conservative who will not do this kind of nonsense. He needs to be punished, the liberal Republicans need to be punished, and they need to be thrown out of office at the first opportunity. I'll say that until I'm blue in the face.

Following a commercial break, Ingraham said she'd look into running against Graham herself, telling her audience “people think I'm joking, I'm actually not joking.”

Ingraham's statements follow a history of threatening to challenge Republican senators and representatives if they support the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill. On May 22, Ingraham said that she is “thinking of moving to Arizona,” saying she “will primary challenge Senator Jeff Flake myself if that's what this requires.” And on June 7, she said that if comprehensive immigration reform passes in the House of Representatives, “I am going to make it my personal mission to support primaries for every Republican who supports it.”

She has also repeatedly criticized Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) who is part of the so-called Gang of 8 that crafted the Senate's immigration bill. On April 17, she said the bill will be “the end of Marco Rubio's political career,” and on May 15 she told Rubio to “walk away” from the immigration bill “before it's too late.” Most recently on June 21, Ingraham finally declared that Rubio's presidential chances are “over” because of his support for immigration reform.

Ingraham's campaign against immigration reform doesn't just rest on threatening to unseat Republicans, however. She has also repeatedly smeared Latinos and read ads for the anti-immigration hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform on her radio show.