South Carolina Republican Senate Poll

Lindsey Graham 52
Mark McBride 8
Buddy Witherspoon 5
Tim Carnes 4
John Cina 3

When it comes to the controversy over Lindsey Graham's voting record within South Carolina Republican circles, it appears the bark is worse than the bite. Even with four people challenging him in the primary, Graham is at 52% with none of his opponents polling any better than 8%.

Even among voters who said their top issue was immigration Graham leads McBride 37-15. Graham's stance on comprehensive immigration reform has drawn a lot of criticism. But it appears the number of likely GOP primary voters who will vote on a single issue to punish Graham for his position is limited.

In 2006 when Mark Sanford earned just 65% of the vote in the Republican primary running for reelection it was speculated as a sign of vulnerability for the general election, but he ended up winning by a pretty significant margin. Unless the opposition to Graham somehow consolidates in the form of one strong primary challenger with enough resources to run a strong campaign, it looks like he should be pretty safe for renomination.

Full results here