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by WILL FOLKS
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Less than a month after his surprise decision to run for the United States Congress, former two-term South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has dropped out of the race for the Palmetto State’s first district.
The veteran politician has decided instead to launch a nonprofit devoted to his signature issue – the ballooning national debt, which currently stands at a staggering $39.1 trillion and is growing at a scarcely comprehensible rate of $7.6 billion per day.
News of Sanford’s decision was first reported by Caitlin Byrd of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier. According to Byrd, Sanford said achieving meaningful progress on the debt issue would require “a change that comes to Washington, rather than from Washington.”
That would require him to take a “different approach” than mounting another campaign for office.
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Sanford, 65, of Dale, S.C., served three terms in the U.S. congress from 1995-2001 – earning a reputation as a “deficit hawk.” Campaigning on his fiscal conservatism (and the fact he was one of only a handful of politicians who kept their word on term limits), Sanford was elected governor of South Carolina in 2002 – serving a pair of four-year terms.
As governor, Sanford had a contentious relationship with “Republican” state lawmakers – although many of the policy positions he unsuccessfully championed at the time (including income tax relief, school choice and government restructuring) have formed the basis of subsequent reform movements.
Some of those policy planks have even found their way into law in recent years, including governors and lieutenant governors running on the same ticket.
Well-positioned as one of the top Republican presidential prospects ahead of the 2012 election cycle, Sanford’s promising national career imploded during the summer of 2009 when he was caught traveling to South America to visit his mistress, María Belén Chapur. Those events – which nearly cost him his governorship – were revisited recently by CNN’s Jake Tapper as part of a documentary series entitled United States of Scandal.
Sanford bounced back, though, winning a special election for his old seat in congress in 2013. He served two-and-a-half terms before being defeated in the 2018 Republican primary by state representative Katie Arrington.
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After his second stint in congress, Sanford launched a Quixotic presidential bid against Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 cycle. Largely ignored by the press and public, he dropped out of that race in November 2019 – claiming Trump’s impeachment had eliminated the “appetite for a nuanced conversation on issues.”
Trump likely factored into Sanford’s decision to abandon his latest congressional bid, as the president was expected to campaign against him in the event his candidacy gained traction.
Sanford’s most recent brush with fame was his 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.
The first district seat Sanford was seeking is being vacated by incumbent U.S. congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is running for governor. Numerous candidates are running to replace her, including Charleston County councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt (daughter of influential Republican national committeewoman Cindy Costa), state representative Marvin “Mark” Smith, Dorchester County councilman Jay Byars, retired United States Air Force (USAF) colonel Alex Pelbath, Beaufort county councilman Logan Cunningham, physician/entrepreneur Sam McCown and nationalist conservative Tyler Dykes.
Republican voters will go to the polls on June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate receives a majority of ballots cast, the top two vote-getters would face off in a head-to-head matchup two weeks later on June 23, 2026.
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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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1 comment
Thank God