if any incumbent has to establish themselves now. reporter: less than half of south carolina s republicans said they will support graham. there are six candidates running against him. among them, lee bright, a state senator. i m not so sure the founders would be in the street right now. reporter: and nancy mace. the first female to graduate from the citadel. groups are spending big money to help conservatives confront the establishment. thad caulk ron votes with jimmy carter. reporter: but they ve stayed out of south carolina partly because they have their own flaws. bright wants to study where south carolina should have its own currency. we had them telling us we would should have a plan. reporter: nancy mace has ties to a blogger who accused nikki haley of an extramarital affair. graham s situation is a
strategy. he s appealed to the base by keeping pressure on the administration over benghazi. is it true that hillary clinton could not appear on the shows because she was tired? reporter: back home he has worked hard behind the scenes to keep stronger opponents out of the race. the south carolina house delegation is home to a pair of tea party favorites. but they decided not to run. i m not discounting the candidates i have, but i think the people i work with, you know, the delegation, understands how our office delivers for the state. there s a lot of mutual respect. reporter: on the campaign trail, graham s tried to turn what could have been his biggest weakness, the art of compromise into his biggest strength. this is a time when republicans and democrats have to work together. what i like most about politics is the fighting and the give and take. both are important. there s a time to fight and a time to fix.
reporter: graham could still face a dangerous runoff if he doesn t win 50% of the vote. but if he wins, he ll do it on his own terms. i want to come out of this thing stronger. i ve been challenging now. the gauntlet has been conservative. lindsey graham conservatism versus other forms of it. there is a time to find common ground. and that if you are willing to embrace that, you won t lose your job. reporter: now, a runoff could be tricky for graham because it would elevate one of his challengers out of the pack. but for now he s put himself in a pretty good place. a cheerful place. thanks very much. ed rendell has a question for you. ed? if there s a runoff, who would lindsey graham most like to run gheagainst in a runoff? reporter: i think he s actually still trying to sort that out. i mean, these challengers, any
friend named tony. i want reads hello jordan my name is tony. there s no bother in looking for cody any more he s gone. the e-mail claims johnson died during that car trip. detective cory clark knew something was fishy about graham s story. have you had many people lie to you? i don t want to talk about that. reporter: on the stand the detective testified the e-mail traced back to a computer at graham s father s home. a fake e-mail created to support graham s story to police. witnesses testified that graham appeared fixated with getting the police out of her life. on the day she led friends and family to suddenly discover johnson at the bottom of the cliff two friends testified graham said since her groom s body had been recovered the police will get off her back. defense attorneys say graham was simply a scared young woman, that the fall was just a terrible accident.
e-mail created to support graham s story to police. witnesses testified that graham appeared fixated with getting the police out of her life. on the day she led friends and family to suddenly discover johnson at the bottom of the cliff, two friends testified graham said that since her groom s body had been recovered, the police will get off her back. defense attorneys say graham was simply a scared young woman, that the fall was just a terrible accident. graham contends she was fighting with johnson, he grabbed her, she pushed him away and he fell. her lawyers say she lied because she feared no one would belve her story. graham now has to hope a jury of 12 will. as testimony continues on the third day of her trial. kyung lah, cnn, missoula, montana. kyung, thanks for that. let s get to meteorologist jennifer grey to take another look at what s in store with this winter weather.