Former South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel is making a run at Lindsey Graham's U.S. Senate seat. Jeffrey Collins/AP
“I’m a pretty bold guy and boldness is genius," says a cocksure Thomas Ravenel, the 52-year-old Bravo television reality show star turned independent U.S. Senate candidate in South Carolina.
On a recent evening in Anderson, S.C., with glistening sweat on his brow, Ravenel, locally known as T-Rav, is working the room hard at a local GOP fundraiser trying to convince a partisan crowd to buck their instincts and select an alternative to the two-party system this November.
Ravenel's a familiar face. Many of the silver-haired folks at this gathering know him as former state treasurer who was forced to resign his office due to a drug charge. But a younger demographic may recognize him as the star of Bravo's television series, "Southern Charm."
That's also why political observers in the Palmetto State are having trouble taking his candidacy seriously.
On this particular night there's no camera crew trailing him to gather footage for season two of the show, but nonetheless their presence has become a common occurrence.
At many of Ravenel's campaign events, a sign is placed outside the venue warning attendees that their likeness could appear in the television production.
"You are being photographed . . . Please do not enter this area if you do not wish to appear," reads the sign.
But if Ravenel's candidacy is just a vehicle to spark interest in season two, he's playing the part to a tee.
“The two-party political class in Washington is running this great Republic into the ditch," he says in a brief interview.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the overwhelming favorite for a third term, "has been there too long and is not advancing freedom," Ravenel continues.
Ravenel has invested about $234,000 of his own money in his campaign so far and hired a campaign manager, who trailed him at the local GOP event in Anderson.
Scott Wheeler, a self-described political activist who resides in Los Angeles, told U.S. News it was Bravo that reached out to him about running Ravenel's campaign.
“They called me. They were fishing around in Washington for somebody. They were looking for somebody who had political experience and also I’ve done some entertainment stuff, script-writing, things like that so they called me and said, ‘Would you be interested?'," he explained.
But he stressed he made sure Ravenel was serious before abandoning other projects and signing on to the long-shot endeavor that has taken him across the country.
“I asked him three times the first day I met him, ‘Are you serious about winning?’ and he said yes," recalled Wheeler.
But the truest test of Ravenel's seriousness may be whether he ultimately decides to devote millions of his own money to the cause of unseating Graham. "Stay tuned," is all he'll offer on that question.
If he was to devote several millions to advertising attacking Graham, some in-state GOP operatives believe Ravenel could peel off enough voters to provide the little-known Democratic candidate Brad Hutto a fighting chance.
Until that happens, Graham's team and most Republicans are ignoring him.
But Ravenel is not a man who can be easily ignored. He clearly enjoys soaking up the attention wherever he can grab it, even if it's playing a role in a political campaign to extend his celebrity campaign past its 15 minutes.
“I wouldn’t be driving around eight hours a day for the last two weeks if it were for ratings for Bravo," he says. "They don’t pay me enough.”
David Catanese is senior politics writer for U.S. News & World Report and founder of the blog The Run 2016. You can follow him on Twitter and send him feedback at dcatanese@usnews.com.