COLUMBIA --- White House hopeful John McCain's campaign began airing his first radio ads in early voting South Carolina on Monday, telling voters he was right in calling for a troop surge in Iraq and that terrorists are on the run.

The Arizona senator's campaign has purchased more than 1,000 ads, but "we're not going to get into our ad strategy," said spokesman B.J. Boling, when asked if the ads are running statewide. He also would not say how much the campaign is spending.

In the ad, an announcer says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the Iraq war lost but that he was wrong and Mr. McCain was the only candidate calling for adding troops.

"I've been to Iraq nine times," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Mr. McCain's chief South Carolina supporter, says in the 30-second ad. "The troop surge is working. Terrorists are on the run, and we need a president prepared to win."

Mr. McCain, Mr. Graham says, "is the only candidate for president prepared to be commander in chief on day one. No candidate can match his record of service. And as all the polls indicate, he's the only Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. So our party and our nation need John McCain."

Mr. McCain has aired ads in New Hampshire and Boston for more than a month.

The ad is not the first ad favorable to Mr. McCain to get on the air here. In November, an independent group, the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, put up a South Carolina ad praising Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham as "leaders who share our priorities" by supporting funds for U.S. troops and opposing pork-barrel spending. Mr. McCain, long an opponent of those kinds of independent ads, called on the group to pull them.

Mr. McCain's ties to Mr. Graham in the new ad, however, likely will remind voters of how both pushed President Bush's plans for overhauls of the nation's immigration laws this year that failed as the GOP base branded it an opportunity for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Mr. Graham's involvement was a chief reason he now faces primary challengers as he seeks a second term in 2008. While Mr. Graham's campaign has plenty of cash to ward off challengers, both he and Mr. McCain have conceded they learned lessons from pushing the legislation.

Mr. McCain wrapped up a two-day swing through South Carolina on Saturday. Voters may not see him back in the state before the Jan. 10 GOP debate as Mr. McCain turns his attention to winning the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.