Mark Lynch, a Republican primary candidate challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C), is refusing to pay between $50,000 and $100,000 in federal taxes for the 2025 tax year, according to financial disclosures reviewed by the Washington Reporter.
The filings reveal a pattern of financial delinquency for Lynch, who previously carried hundreds of thousands in overdue taxes while failing to disclose any bank accounts or investments backing his wealth. While Lynch has pumped $5 million of his own money into his campaign, the source of those millions is entirely hidden from voters on his disclosure forms. A formal ethics complaint obtained by the Reporter calls on the Senate Ethics Committee to launch an immediate investigation into Lynch.
Compounding the candidate’s financial scrutiny is a documented criminal history and a string of highly unconventional campaign trail controversies, which Graham and his allies have been using to argue that Lynch would be a weak nominee against the Democrats’ well-funded presumptive nominee, Annie Andrews.
Lynch is a convicted felon, having been found guilty of cocaine trafficking. While he claims to have received a presidential pardon, Department of Justice (DOJ) records contain no documentation of executive clemency. Lynch has publicly advocated for the legalization of cocaine. When video recordings surfaced of him defending this stance, Lynch bizarrely claimed the footage was an artificial intelligence “deepfake.”
State public safety records show Lynch was arrested for a hit-and-run incident in South Carolina, and he has also faced several independent charges for Driving Under the Influence (DUI). The candidate has also come under fire for opposing President Donald Trump’s cabinet appointees and for hiring anti-Semitic staff, including one campaign researcher who posted a video showing a boot stomping on the Talmud — a sacred Jewish holy text.
Graham himself recently released a devastating ad targeting Lynch. “Mark Lynch calls himself a constitutional conservative. He even touts teaching classes on the Constitution,” Graham wrote. “Grade his knowledge of the Constitution below for yourself.” Graham’s ad then shows Lynch failing to answer basic civics questions on video, like “which amendment reserves the powers to the states?”
“Hmm,” Lynch responds. “I’m not sure.”
President Donald Trump has, perhaps unsurprisingly, endorsed Graham in the race, following years of Graham serving as one of his top advocates in the Senate. Trump also said Lynch is a “LUNATIC” who “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party.”
