- Sen. Lindsey Graham keeps posting about Chick-Fil-A in New York.
- He claims they're being targeted by a bill to force rest stop locations to stay open 7 days a week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham is going to bat for Chick-Fil-A in New York state.
The Republican senator — whose own state of South Carolina is roughly 600 miles away — has now posted three different times from Chick-Fil-A locations in Manhattan, declaring that the state must "keep their hands off OUR Chick-fil-A!"
Graham's calling attention to a bill proposed by a group of Democratic state legislators that would require restaurants operating in transportation facilities and rest areas to remain open 7 days a week.
Chick-Fil-A, founded by conservative Christians, is famously closed on Sundays — and Graham is arguing that the bill would amount to a violation of the exercise of religious liberty.
Proponents of the bill, on the other hand, point out that Sunday is a busy travel day, and that no one is forcing Chick-Fil-A to operate in state-owned rest stops.
Hi @LindseyGrahamSC it’s me, I’m the Democrat. If you have a coveted spot on the Thruway, a public good, you should serve people on the busiest travel day of the week. Just common sense
— Michelle Hinchey (@MichelleHinchey) December 23, 2023
Anyway, if you need a place for Xmas Eve, the Hudson Valley is open & we serve everyone w/! https://t.co/dGLnoPXF9s
But Graham's crusade continues, with the South Carolina senator posting twice from a Manhattan Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday almost a week after he first declared "war" over the bill and threatened to introduce a bill withholding federal funds from any state that enacts such a policy.
And some of those tweets, unsurprisingly, include a link to his campaign website.
ICYMI: New York is trying to force @ChickfilA to remain open on Sunday at state rest areas.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 27, 2023
This is a blatant violation of this company’s constitutional rights, and we’re not going to let that happen without a fight.
Lend your voice and tell NY to keep their hands off OUR… pic.twitter.com/Nv1zBFII3E
It's nothing new for politicians to raise money off of an issue like this — if anything, it's a classic example of how politicians raise small-dollar donations in general.
But in this case, Graham appears to be the loudest voice protesting the policy and drawing attention to it.
The story has garnered some, though not massive amounts of attention and controversy across the conservative media ecosystem.