Project 2025 Architect Challenges Lindsey Graham for Senate
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Paul Dans, a chief architect and co-author of the controversial Project 2025 policy blueprint, is launching a Republican primary challenge against GOP Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, according to an Associated Press interview announcing the run.
Dans is set to formally announce his campaign this week at an event in Charleston, joining what is already becoming a crowded field for the November 2026 midterm election.
Newsweek reached out to Dans' office via email and an online form for Graham on Monday for comment.
Why It Matters
This primary challenge represents a significant test of loyalties within President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and the Republican Party.
Despite Trump's early endorsement of Graham, Dans believes his Project 2025 vision offers a path to further transform the federal government.
Project 2025 is a 900-page document of policy proposals published by The Heritage Foundation think tank. It advocates limited government, border security and tough immigration laws among other conservative measures. The policy proposals have proved divisive, and Trump's critics and supporters alike have debated their influence on him.
Before last year's presidential election, Democrats accused Trump of planning to implement Project 2025 if he won. While Trump initially called parts of the plan "ridiculous and abysmal," he told Time after his win that he disagreed with parts of it, but not all of it. He has since appointed a number of people linked to Project 2025 to White House positions.
Who Is Paul Dans?
According to his Senate campaign site, Dans grew up in a family dedicated to public service and academia. His father, Peter Dans, was a respected professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, while his mother, Colette Lizotte, was a French teacher and former chemist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After excelling at Dulaney High School in debate and athletics, Dans earned degrees from MIT in economics and city planning before obtaining his law degree from the University of Virginia where he served as president of the campus Federalist Society chapter.
Dans spent two decades practicing commercial litigation in New York City at prestigious firms including Debevoise & Plimpton LLP before establishing his own practice in 2009. He gained recognition as the intellectual architect of the "Chevron outtakes" case, helping the oil company combat a $27 billion fraud allegation related to pollution in Ecuador through innovative legal tactics that earned him acclaim in legal circles.
His transition to government service began with Trump's 2016 campaign where he worked in Pennsylvania to help secure the state's electoral votes. Dans joined the Trump administration in 2019 at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) before advancing to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as White House liaison and later chief of staff. Trump appointed him to a six-year term as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission in January 2021.
In his most prominent role, Dans served as director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project at The Heritage Foundation until July 2024. Under his leadership, the project developed a comprehensive "battle plan" for federal agencies, built a database of over 10,000 vetted conservative candidates, and conducted training seminars like "Deep State 101" to empower appointees. Dans expressed delight at the implementation of Project 2025's agenda under the second Trump administration, describing it as "beyond my wildest dreams."
Dans is married to Mary Helen Bowers, a former New York City Ballet dancer and founder of Ballet Beautiful fitness brand. They have four children and live in Charleston.
Who Are the Other Candidates?
Other candidates have formally announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season.
The full field of candidates challenging Graham in South Carolina includes:
Democrats: Annie Andrews, Brandon Brown, Catherine Fleming Bruce, Kyle Freeman, Christopher Giracello, and Lee Johnson
Republicans: André Bauer and Mark Lynch
Libertarian: Kasie Whitener
Independents: Jack Ellison and Reece Wright-McDonald
Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, did not discuss his reelection campaign or potential candidates challenging his seat.
Paul Dans, then-director of The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2024.
Paul Dans, then-director of The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2024.
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
What People Are Saying
Paul Dans told the AP: "What we've done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era. If you look at where the chokepoint is, it's the United States Senate. That's the headwaters of the swamp."
He later added: "To be clear, I believe that there is a 'deep state' out there, and I'm the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp."
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Graham's campaign who co-managed Trump's 2024 bid, told the AP: "After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump's historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump's longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham."
What Happens Next?
Dans will launch his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by his formal announcement in Charleston on Wednesday.
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