Lindsey Graham launches 2016 Republican presidential bid

CENTRAL, S.C. — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has kicked off his presidential campaign.

He launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in the small South Carolina town called Central, where he grew up.

He told supporters Monday: “I’m ready. I want to be president to defeat the enemies that are trying to kill us.”

Graham is a prominent Senate voice in seeking a more muscular foreign policy. He wants 10,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq to stabilize a world that he’s characterized as “falling apart.”

Graham is an outspoken member of the conservative class that swept into Congress in 1994. But he’s joined with Democrats on some contentious votes.

He backed a 2012 immigration overhaul and voted to end a 2013 partial government shutdown.

BILL BARROW, Associated Press