On radio this morning, Glenn spoke to South Carolina Republican State Senator Lee Bright, who is challenging incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham in the upcoming senate race. Bright joins fellow candidates Nancy Mace and Richard Cash in the Republican primary fight, and Glenn found himself impressed with Bright and his background.
“So now you are officially in the game and you are officially running against Lindsey Graham,” Glenn said to Bright on radio this morning. “What is the reason why people from South Carolina should trust that you're going to be any different?
“Well, I've done that in the State Senate, I've been very conservative,” Bright said. “I've got a 100 score with the South Carolina Club For Growth, got the high score in the legislature in the Republican liberty caucus. I've been consistent on social and fiscal issues. Basically I've been fighting the good fight and looking forward to doing that in Washington.”
Sen. Graham made headlines recently for his ill-advised comments about not knowing how bad things really were in Egypt. He has said he doesn’t mind if the NSA listens to his phone calls from time to time. He mocked fellow Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) for his decision to filibuster the Obama administration’s drone policy. It’s safe to say that Sen. Graham does not align with conservative values. But would Bright be any different? Glenn asked him what he would do upon arriving in Washington.
“I think somebody's going to take the fight to Obama,” Bright said. “Instead of trying to find ways to compromise with someone who is dismantling the foundation of our nation, we need to take the fight to him and we're not doing that… We've got three in the U.S. Senate that are doing it and, you know, I'm hoping that we get more. But it's just a matter of taking the fight to him.”
When you are facing off against someone like Sen. Graham, you are really facing off against a machine of progressives from both sides of the aisle who will stop at nothing to maintain power. Glenn reminded Bright that it will be a difficult and trying fight.
“And that's what I told people after I got elected to the State Senate. I said, ‘You think things are bad until you get down there and you find out how bad it really is.’ And I'm sure Washington's even worse,” Bright explained. “I've been through a lot in my life. I have had to go through a business that did not survive the economic times, I had cancer when I was in high school, my wife and I had two very tough miscarriages. I've been through a lot in my life, and the very thing that holds me is being grounded in my faith. And I realize that we're all but vapors on this Earth, and I want to be able to make a difference and to be able to say that my life mattered. And by going up there and being a part of the crowd, I'm not going to be able to make a difference.”
“Okay,” Glenn responded. “So that brings me to my question: How's your soul?”
“How's my soul,” Bright reiterated. “I'm a sinner saved by grace. That's how my soul is. But I'm worried about the soul of America, which to me, right now we're in some dark times.”
While many have been known to falter on that particular question, Glenn was impressed by Bright’s response.
“I think I'm going to take that,” Glenn said. “I would like him to go a little deeper, but I think I'll take that one. I think I'll take that one.”
“Really,” Stu exclaimed. You're going to accept an answer to that question? You never accept any answer to that question.”
Challenging Sen. Graham will be no easy task, and Bright should expect a tedious fight. Glenn, however, came out of the interview surprisingly optimistic.
“I will tell you, you know who he reminds me of,” Glenn asked. “Ted Cruz – when we first started interviewing Ted Cruz. Not sure because I'd like to see the proof is in the pudding, but he said a lot of the same things that Ted Cruz said.”
"I will say that he definitely has a good handle on why he believes the things he believes,” Stu continued. “He doesn't seem like he's a guy who's coming to this as, ‘Oh, well, you know, I know the Rand Paul thing's kind of trendy at the moment. So I'm going to go down that road’… The question is can he win.”
