I'm Jonathan Cape Heart and this is Cape Up.

When I was in South Carolina in February for the Democratic primary,

I sat down with Jamie Harrison.

He's the former chairman of the state's Democratic Party, the first African-American

to hold the post, and now he's vying to become the Palmetto State's second black-sitting U.S. senator

by running against incumbent Republican Senator

Lindsey Graham. Harrison has an incredible bio, one that took him from being so

poor he ate cereal with water to being a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law School.

His race to defeat Graham has gone from improbable to possible.

Since we talked, Harrison's first quarter fundraising broke state records, and he's within striking distance of overtaking the man folks once revered.

Here's what he said happened at a focus group in Charleston.

And one woman said to the moderator, she said,

and I'm bothered by the fact that Lindsey Graham did not stand up for his friend John McCain.

And she said, if he won't stand up for his best friend then what will it do for me?

Here Harrison explain how that sentiment could be his route to victory over Lindsay Graham right now.

Jamie Harrison, thank you very much for being on the podcast.

Thank you, Jonathan. I appreciate it.

So I want to get into who you are.

And when you look at your biography, it's gripping,

and it's gripping in its deprivation and in its success.

And I'm going to start with the tough early years.

And there is one line in your bio that just grabbed me,

...