Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has endorsed Jeb Bush on Friday, throwing his support behind the former Florida governor for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race in which the southern state holds a key early vote.
Speaking on FOX News, Bush said he welcomed his former rival's support in the race to represent the party in the November presidential election, noting that support from the senator - whose state holds its primary next month - comes with "a lot of friends and supporters."
At a news conference in South Carolina Friday, Graham said he liked what he heard from Bush at the debate the previous night.
"Last night I heard from Jeb Bush the right answer," Graham said with Bush at his side. "He demonstrated somebody in my view who is ready on day one to be commander-in-chief."
For Bush’s floundering presidential campaign, the endorsement is a huge shot in the arm. The endorsement comes after Graham, a South Carolina Republican who withdrew from the presidential race on Dec. 21, said he was unsure he’d be backing any candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
“No. 1, will my endorsement matter? I’ve got to see what, if any, damage I have done to myself here at home,” Graham said last week, according to The State newspaper.
"Lindsey Graham is probably the most knowledgeable person on the Hill as it relates to national security, military affairs and foreign policy," Bush told FOX in an interview on Friday.
A conservative on defense and foreign policy, Graham tousled with the Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who holds a wide lead in national public opinion polls but has drawn the ire of the Republican establishment.
Still, it is not immediately clear how much influence Graham's endorsement could hold in the Republican race, which has seen a sharp divide between political outsiders such as Trump and other so-called establishment candidates, including Bush.
Graham’s support of Bush is not too much of a surprise since he previously said he would steer clear of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas because of their campaigns are divisive and repelling potential voters. Trump and Graham have traded numerous insults over the months.
Bush and his supporters have been aggressively trying to reverse his declining poll numbers — he is in fifth place in national polls — with a number of acidic attack ads. This past week, campaign commercials ripping Trump as insensitive to people with disabilities and against Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as a “flip-flopper” on issues, are making the rounds.
Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott are two key South Carolinians who have yet endorsed a candidate. But The State reports that Haley has said she hopes to make an endorsement before the Feb. 20th presidential primary in South Carolina.
Scott is reportedly set to throw his weight behind Rubio.
Staff writer Bill Hoffmann contributed to this report.