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by WILL FOLKS
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Mark Sanford will formally launch his latest political comeback next week in Dorchester County, South Carolina, appearing before a gathering of local Republicans in the city of Summerville.
Sanford will appear alongside two candidates for statewide office at the monthly meeting of the Dorchester County Republican Party (DCRP) – currently scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT at the Summerville Country Club. Event organizers are billing the gathering as Sanford’s “first public appearance” since announcing his candidacy for the Palmetto State’s first congressional district.
“Former governor Mark Sanford, long known in Washington as a deficit hawk, is making his first public appearance since announcing his candidacy for congress,” party chairman CJ Westfall said. “This is a must-attend event for anyone who cares about fiscal responsibility, the future of the Lowcountry, and South Carolina.”
Sanford, 65, of Dale, S.C., served three terms in the U.S. congress from 1995-2001 – the only time during his political career he could accurately be called a “deficit hawk.” Campaigning on his fiscal conservatism (and keeping his word on term limits), he was elected governor of South Carolina in 2002 – serving a pair of four-year terms. Well-positioned as one of the top Republican presidential prospects ahead of the 2012 election cycle, his promising career imploded during the summer of 2009 when he was caught traveling to South America to visit his mistress, María Belén Chapur.
Sanford famously lied to his staff – and his family – about his whereabouts, claiming he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
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The dramatic events that blew up Sanford’s political career were revisited recently by CNN’s Jake Tapper as part of a documentary series entitled United States of Scandal.
Sanford, duly christened as the “Luv Gov,” bounced back from his scandal in the spring of 2013, winning a special election to the same first district seat he’d held prior to becoming governor. Sadly, Sanford 2.0 was a status quo hack, one reason he lost his primary in 2018 to then-state representative Katie Arrington.
Sanford next ran for president, mounting a Quixotic bid against Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 cycle. Largely ignored by the press and public, he dropped out of the race in November 2019 – claiming Trump’s impeachment eliminated the “appetite for a nuanced conversation on issues.”
Prior to doing so, however, he repeatedly bashed Trump and his supporters.
“A Trump flag flying above your house? Really?” Sanford wrote in one Facebook post. “Our Founding Fathers had an inherent distrust of any one man, or woman, in the political system. Accordingly they designed a nation where we were to put our faith in laws and institutions – not men.”
Trump is widely expected to weigh in against Sanford in the event his bid gains traction…
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Can Sanford win the GOP nomination for this seat? Possibly… he has tons of name identification and plenty of campaign cash to tap. Certainly, those advantages position him as a top contender to at least make a runoff election.
For those of you unfamiliar with how partisan primary elections work in the Palmetto State, if no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first ballot, the top two vote-getters square off in a head-to-head runoff election two weeks later.
The field Sanford has entered is incredibly crowded – increasing the chances of a runoff. Retired United States Air Force (USAF) colonel Alex Pelbath, Charleston County councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt (daughter of influential Republican national committeewoman Cindy Costa), state representative Marvin “Mark” Smith, nationalist conservative Tyler Dykes, physician/entrepreneur Sam McCown and Dorchester County councilman Jay Byars are all vying to replace outgoing congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is running for governor.
While Sanford has advantages over many of these candidates, he also has extensive baggage.
Sanford’s most recent brush with fame was his recently revealed affair with 33-year-old Olivia Nuzzi, a former New York magazine/Vanity Fair reporter who covered his 2020 presidential bid. Exposed by Nuzzi’s former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, Nuzzi admitted to the relationship in her 2025 book, American Canto.
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we keep tabs on Sanford’s latest attempt to reenter politics…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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3 comments
Marky Mark wasn’t a bad gubernor but he has some baggage now that will be tough to overcome, not the least of which is his tendency to piss off the people he should be influencing.
He was Completely and Uncompromising about “Pork Barrel” Political Budgeting! That is a Good Thing, Regardless,
Who he Pissed Off!
I would rather have Sanford back in that seat than some of the Trump sycophants who have filed. And I would put his personal character, although it faltered with the Appalachian Trail episode, up against Donald Trump’s any day. At least he admitted to his adultery.