By admin 
Danny Ford II, who unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination for commissioner of agriculture, is suing the state Republican Party in order to run for the U.S. Senate.
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Ford filed to run in the Aug. 11 primary to replace the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on the November ballot. Ford was one of 12 people to file, but one of three the state party did not certify.
Ford did not fulfill new South Carolina Republican Party rules requiring candidates to have voted in the last two of three GOP statewide primaries, a party spokeswoman previously said. The rule was passed in June as part of an effort to close the state primaries.
“It’s not easy to go put yourself out there like that, only to walk up there with my family and be denied certification,” Ford said.
In the filing, written by Ford’s attorney, state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, the disqualified senate-hopeful contends the state party denied candidates “who lawfully filed to run for U.S. Senate, complied with other campaign laws, and who are actively campaigning for public office the equal right to be elected to fill public office.”
Hutto also wrote the GOP rule implemented last month is “an unlawful partisan requirement in violation of the S.C. Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.”
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A spokesperson for the state Republican Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a brief interview, Ford said the government shutdown last year made the lives of farmers more challenging, pushing him into public service. Ford, an Upstate farmer, is the son of former Clemson University football coach Danny Ford. The elder Ford coached Clemson to its first national championship in 1981.
“I think that more farmers and more hardworking blue-collar people need to be in the Senate,” Ford said.
“There’s 1,000s of things that come through our Senate that farmers have to deal with the backlash of,” Ford said. “So I thought it would be a fabulous fit for me personally.”
Ford ran for the Republican nomination for agriculture commissioner earlier this year before the state party’s rule on previous primary participation was implemented.
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