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"Four years ago, the two biggest Republicans in South Carolina\u2014check that, the two biggest political figures in South Carolina\u2014made opposing endorsements: Lindsey Graham, the senior senator, had a buddy-comedy relationship with John McCain, and the two palled around on the stump through the general. Jim DeMint backed Romney. (Remember back when Mitt was seen as a conservative challenger to McCain?) This year both declined to endorse. Why?\n\nSouth Carolina sources say that DeMint doesn&amp;#39;t want to risk alienating the small donors that fuel his Senate Conservatives Fund, a small-donor organization that helped elect Senator Marco Rubio and earned the junior senator his kingmaker title. The group hopes to raise $15 million this year from small government and conservative activists, some of the same people who are likely donating to Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. A source close to DeMint says it has nothing to do with fears of alienating donors\u2014that DeMint&amp;#39;s strategy with the fund is to direct efforts at candidates the grassroots gets behind, rather than trying to lead them.\n\n&amp;quot;His model for endorsements both in how he looks at presidential race and how he looks at Senate races is the same in that he wants proven consistent conservatives, but the second test is he wants people with grassroots coalesced around them,&amp;quot; the source said. &amp;quot;He wants to join the grassroots and help them promote and expose and elect candidates he likes. In the presidential race we didn&amp;#39;t see that happen. They didn&amp;#39;t coalesce around a conservative candidate. People can argue that there isn&amp;#39;t a proven conservative even in the race.&amp;quot;\n\nBut it&amp;#39;s not hard to see the considerable downside to endorsing in the primary. The conservative base is splintered and the divisions among the candidates are growing increasingly bitter. That may be why Graham, whose maverick-y tendencies tend to make him one of the most popular politicians in the general election and one of the most controversial in the primary, stayed out. Nikki Haley, South Carolina&amp;#39;s once Tea Party-approved governor, is facing a bruising backlash for her endorsement of Romney. The overwhelming feeling in the state is that the anti-establishment sentiment so strong that there are incredible risks and few rewards to getting involved. If they want to get reelected, it&amp;#39;s best that lawmakers in South Carolina stay out of the presidential race."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/why-south-carolinas-senators-are-awol>