A Familiar Face Files to Run for Nancy Mace’s Congressional Seat: ‘It’s Time’

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

A familiar face is running for Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) congressional seat — the former governor who represented the district for two different stints before her.

Mace is one of many Republican House members leaving Congress; she is currently battling a crowded GOP primary field to be South Carolina’s next governor. On Monday, the last day to register as a candidate in the Palmetto State, Mark Sanford threw his hat in the ring.

Sanford represented South Carolina’s first congressional district from 1995 to 2001 before successfully running for governor in 2002. He made national headlines in 2009 during his second gubernatorial term after he was missing for a few days, claimed he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” and then finally admitted to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. He survived an impeachment effort, refused to resign, and completed his term.

After a short break from politics, Sanford worked as a Fox News contributor and then ran for his old congressional seat in a 2013 special election after then-Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) was appointed to the Senate by then-Gov. Nikki Haley. Sanford was re-elected until the 2018 election cycle, when he had clashed with President Donald Trump, who endorsed his primary opponent, State Rep. Katie Arrington (R), who ended up losing in a surprise upset by Joe Cunningham, a Democrat who held the seat for one term until he was beaten by Mace in 2020.

Sanford found his name in headlines again when he launched a long-shot bid challenging Trump for the 2020 GOP presidential nomination, only to drop out two months later. Then, in November of last year, journalist Ryan Lizza accused his ex-fiancee Olivia Nuzzi of having an affair with Sanford, before her previously-reported relationship with now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Charleston newspaper The Post and Courier reported on Sanford’s attempt at a third tour of duty in SC-1 on Monday, noting that he was “still focused on tackling America’s mounting debt, deficit and government spending” as his core issues.

Mace’s open seat has resulted in “an already volatile 1st District race,” the paper reported, as the eleventh Republican joins seven other Democrats battling in their respective primaries.

“People have been telling me it’s time to get off the bleachers,” Sanford told The Post and Courier, saying voters agreed with him that the U.S. was facing a dire economic situation if government spending was not brought under control.

“Our nation’s debt is the issue that will define whether this country survives in the form we’ve known it,” Sanford added in a press release from his campaign. “It will also define how young and old fare over the years ahead, because inflation and interest rates, the value of the dollar, and our ability to afford all that goes with building and sustaining our lives will be driven by what happens next in confronting Washington’s addiction to spending money we don’t have on programs we can’t afford.”

He does have a key asset in his attempt to return to Congress for a third time: a $1.3 million war chest that he raised from his past congressional and presidential campaigns and is allowed under federal campaign finance law to spend for this campaign.

Sanford’s last-minute entry into the race left his Republican opponents fuming. The Post and Courier quoted several of them blasting him for breaking his own prior term limit pledges, for running “because he cannot give up the spotlight,” and accusing him of being an “establishment RINO politician.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!