Lindsey Graham Endorses Jeb Bush

Rainier Ehrhardt/AP

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Lindsey Graham is now the first former GOP presidential candidate to back one of his old rivals: the senator from South Carolina endorsed Jeb Bush this morning in North Charleston, the site of Thursday night’s Republican debates.

Graham, who was the GOP field’s most notable (and sometimes most hilarious) foreign policy hawk, said Bush was the right candidate to keep the country safe. “I have concluded without any hesitation, without any doubt, that Jeb Bush is ready on day one to be commander-in-chief,” he said. He also praised Bush for pushing back against other candidates who attacked Islam and Muslim Americans, another one of Graham’s pet themes during the debates.

The Bush campaign and Graham both seem to think South Carolina can “reset this race,” as Graham said during his endorsement. If Bush can survive Iowa and do well in New Hampshire, a win in South Carolina would give him a plausible chance of emerging as the mythical GOP mainstream consensus candidates. And, as the Washington Post pointed out, “Graham is a savvy pol, a talented spokesman with a real statewide organization.”

Of course, this probably actually means nothing. Graham never broke out of the GOP undercard debates or the low single digits in national polls. And while Bush was already the runaway leader of the endorsement primary, that hasn’t stopped him from becoming an afterthought among GOP primary voters. The Post noted that Bush needs “all the help he can get at the moment”—even if that’s not much at all.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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