Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at a rally for John McCain.

(CNN) – CNN projects that incumbent Lindsey Graham, a Republican, will win the Senate race in South Carolina.

CNN projections are based on actual results and exit poll data from areas where Graham is expected to do well.

Click here to view the full Senate results in South Carolina

Graham said there were more economic ideas to come from McCain.

(CNN) — McCain surrogate Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the Republican nominee will unveil new proposals to "jump-start the nation's economy" over the final three weeks of the presidential campaign.

"I think it goes along the lines of, now's the time to lower tax rates for investors, capital gains tax, dividend tax rates, to make sure that we can get the economy jump-started," the South Carolina senator said on CBS's Face the Nation.

John McCain has already laid out a plan to buy $300 billion in troubled mortgages, and re-negotiate the terms directly with homeowners. On Friday, he endorsed the idea of suspending the current requirement that seniors start drawing down their IRAs and 401Ks once they reach age 70-and-a-half.

Graham said the proposals would form a "very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes" — but would not include any plans for further bailout funding.

President Bush with Sanford, left, and Graham, right.

(CNN) – In an interview Wednesday, one of John McCain’s top backers, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, appeared to pour cold water on the notion that his home state’s governor, Mark Sanford, would be a strong addition to the Republican presidential ticket.

Sanford, a fiscal hawk from the Charleston area with solid credentials on social issues, has seen his name floated by national political observers as a possible running mate for McCain. But within South Carolina, Sanford has maintained a rocky relationship with Republican legislators over spending and reform issues.

Speaking with reporters and editors from The State newspaper in Columbia, Graham praised Sanford as a "solid conservative reformer" and said of the 47-year old governor, "I think his profile nationally among conservatives is very positive."

However, Graham noted that Sanford has had a "tough" tenure as governor, and argued that adding a South Carolinian to the Republican ticket would have a meaningless electoral impact.

"To be honest with you," said Graham, "I don't see any of us in South Carolina bringing a whole lot of value to the ticket. We're talking about winning a national race that's going to be very competitive."

Sanford did not endorse McCain or any GOP candidate before the South Carolina primary, but he has since backed the presumptive nominee.

"When it comes time to pick a vice president, that the smart money, I think, would be trying to add to the national security, you know, reinforce that aspect of the ticket," Graham said.

Speculating on what could happen in his state this fall, Graham said he considered South Carolina too conservative to turn blue in the general election, but still predicted Barack Obama had the potential to shift the electoral map.

"Sen. Obama would create energy and enthusiasm, particularly among African-Americans, so there he is … some states would be in play that hadn't been in play before," he said.

Related: Speculation begins over McCain's running mate

Graham officially supports Sen. McCain for the GOP nomination.

Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) — Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told a group of local Republicans here on Monday night who he believes will win the Democratic presidential nomination.

"Whoever wins this [GOP] nomination is going to get my full support," Graham told a meeting of the Richland County Republican Party. "You know why? You know who we're going to be running against? Hillary Clinton."

Graham, a member of the Air Force Reserves who just returned from a stint serving in Iraq, also offered a vigorous defense of President Bush's Iraq strategy to loud applause, declaring that the troop buildup is working and that the President's policies are the reason the United States has not had a terrorist attack since September 11th.

The senator made one of the boldest statements yet to come out of the debate in Washington over whether Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki is competent enough to bring rival political factions together in Baghdad.

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