South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham will host a fundraiser in support of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in Washington, D.C., on Monday, CNN reported.
Graham, a former presidential candidate, who later supported Jeb Bush’s bid, invited guests to “honor and support a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people,” at an event that will take place during AIPAC’s annual policy conference, according to CNN.
Cruz, along with Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Hillary Clinton, is expected to address AIPAC on Monday. In a statement sent out to the media on Wednesday, Cruz said he will use his speaking opportunity to highlight Trump’s positions “in front of the thousands of AIPAC members in attendance, including Trump’s recent comments that he would be ‘neutral’ in the debate between Israel and the Palestinians.”
In December, Graham used his speaking opportunity to blast Cruz’s positions on social issues, and concluding that he would not stand a chance in the general election, as he addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum. “If the nominee of the Republican Party will not allow for an (abortion) exception for rape and incest, they will not win,” Graham said. “Ted Cruz doesn’t have an exception for rape or incest.” Graham said the policies against illegal immigrants espoused by Cruz and will send the Republican Party into “oblivion.” He also called Cruz “an opportunist” who “has done more to allow ISIL (the Islamic State) to gain a foothold in Syria than any senator other than Rand Paul.”
But after Trump had swept Super Tuesday after another, emerging as the clear front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Graham called Cruz the only viable choice to stop Trump. With Marco Rubio’s exit and Tuesday, Graham’s move is a sign that Cruz might be starting to gain traction with his colleagues in the Senate and establishment Republican donors.
