Sen. Lindsey Graham
Senator for South Carolina
pronounced LIND-zee // gram
Graham is the senior senator from South Carolina and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 7, 2003. Graham is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027. He is 68 years old.
He was previously the representative for South Carolina’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2002.
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Graham.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Graham is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Graham has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 23, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Lindsey Graham sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Graham was the primary sponsor of 19 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 3427: A bill to extend the authority to provide employees of the United States Secret Service with overtime pay beyond other statutory limitations, and for other purposes.
- S. 4996 (116th): Bankruptcy Administration Improvement Act of 2020
- S. 5036 (116th): Secret Service Overtime Pay Extension Act
- S. 4632 (116th): Online Content Policy Modernization Act
- S. 4346 (116th): Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act
- S. 3377 (116th): Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Permanent Extension Act
- S. 3201 (116th): Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act
Does 19 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Graham sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (31%) Crime and Law Enforcement (26%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Immigration (8%) Health (6%) Science, Technology, Communications (6%) Education (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Graham recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Res. 620: A resolution demanding that the international community hold accountable those who perpetrated acts …
- S. 3427: A bill to extend the authority to provide employees of the United States …
- S.Res. 462: A resolution emphasizing the urgency of responding to attacks in Israel and the …
- S. 3207: A bill to establish the Foundation for International Food Security to leverage private …
- S.Res. 414: A resolution designating October 8, 2023, as “National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day”.
- S.Res. 380: A resolution designating the week of October 1, 2023, through October 7, 2023, …
- S.Res. 302: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate to support Ukraine’s accession into …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2003 to Mar 2024, Graham missed 454 of 7,040 roll call votes, which is 6.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills