Mark Sanford has pulled the plug on his latest attempt to return to Congress, just one month after jumping into the race, telling Newsmax and other outlets that he plans to build a nonprofit focused on the national debt instead.
The 65-year-old Republican former South Carolina congressman and governor entered the primary for his old seat in the state's 1st Congressional District on the last day of candidate filing. Now, barely a month later, the campaign is over before it ever gained traction.
Sanford told The Associated Press on Thursday that he believes he can do more on the debt issue from outside elected office than from inside it. The decision was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charleston. It marks the latest chapter in a political career defined by dramatic exits, improbable comebacks, and an inability to stay away from the arena.
Sanford framed the move as a strategic calculation, not a retreat. He said he would use more than $1.3 million remaining in his federal campaign account since he left Congress in 2019 to stand up the new organization, which he said would be centered in South Carolina.
As the AP reported, Sanford described the national debt and deficit as his signature issue, one he said he could not singularly focus on from inside Congress, where members juggle dozens of competing priorities.
Sanford told the AP:
"What I hope to do is to indeed build a grassroots organization, start small, but I have a fair size circle of friends and folks with whom I have some degree of influence and contacts."
He added that the new effort had "a better chance of elevating that issue, if I worked earnestly on it, than I was going to with the course that I was on with the campaign." He also said he wanted to spend more time with family, noting that his first grandchild is on the way.
Sanford's exit comes as Republican departures from Congress continue to mount, raising questions about the party's bench strength heading into the next cycle.
Few political careers in South Carolina have been as turbulent as Sanford's. He launched his first congressional campaign in 1994, finishing second in the GOP primary before winning the runoff. He served six years in the House before running for governor. He then served eight years in the governor's mansion in Columbia.
His rise stalled in 2009 when he disappeared from public view, leaving his wife, family, and staff with no idea where he was. He had gone to Argentina to see his lover. The scandal engulfed his governorship. Jenny Sanford moved out of the governor's mansion, relocated with their four sons to the family's beachfront home near Charleston, and later sued him for divorce.
Sanford beat back both an impeachment inquiry and calls to resign, ultimately leaving office on his own terms. Then, in 2013, he staged one of the more unlikely comebacks in recent memory, winning a special election for his old congressional seat by beating 15 other candidates in a primary and runoff.
He won two more full terms after that. But in 2018, Sanford fell to a GOP challenger who had President Donald Trump's backing. A year after that primary loss, Sanford launched a long-shot primary challenge to Trump himself, then dropped out just ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
His decision to file for his old House seat again came on the final day of candidate filing, entering a primary already crowded with other Republican hopefuls.
Fox News reported that Sanford described the planned nonprofit as nonpartisan. He framed the federal debt crisis in bipartisan terms.
"The trajectory of debt and deficits isn't a Republican problem or a Democrat problem, it's an American problem."
He also told Fox News that he had concluded "the most effective way I can contribute right now is not by seeking office, but by helping build a broader movement focused on the country's financial future."
The debt argument is not new for Sanford. He built much of his congressional identity around fiscal restraint. But the question is whether a nonprofit run by a former officeholder with considerable personal baggage can move the needle on a $35-trillion-plus problem that neither party has shown real willingness to confront.
Sanford himself acknowledged that his political career may be over, with a characteristic hedge. He told the AP he had been getting "a warm reception" on the trail, but that the nonprofit path made more sense.
"Look, if there's ever a guy who would say, 'Never say never,' it's me. But I think, realistically, yeah, and it's recognition of that being the case."
The pattern of Republican officeholders stepping away from elected life, whether voluntarily or under pressure, has become a recurring theme. Some, like North Carolina's top Senate Republican, have been pushed out by voters in stunning upsets. Others have simply walked away.
Sanford's withdrawal clears one more name from the 1st District primary, though the field remains crowded. He entered late, campaigned briefly, and left without making a significant mark on the race. The $1.3 million he said remains in his federal account gives him resources to launch the nonprofit, but it also raises the question of whether the congressional bid was ever more than a placeholder.
His career arc, from fiscal hawk to scandal-scarred governor to comeback congressman to Trump challenger to serial candidate, is a case study in how personal conduct shapes political outcomes. Sanford's policy instincts on spending were often sound. His judgment in other areas was not.
Whether his next act amounts to anything more than a soft landing remains to be seen. Other former officeholders have attempted post-scandal political comebacks with mixed results. Sanford, at least, says he is done trying.
The national debt is a real crisis. It deserves serious people working on it full-time. Whether Mark Sanford is the right messenger, after a career marked more by personal drama than lasting fiscal reform, is a question he has not yet answered.
