Former South Carolina Gov. and Congressman Mark Sanford is making another bid for public office, filing to run for his former U.S. House seat in the state’s 1st Congressional District.
According to the Charleston Post & Courier, Sanford submitted his candidacy paperwork just hours before the filing deadline, entering the June 9 Republican primary in what is already a crowded field of more than a dozen candidates from both parties.
Sanford, a Republican, first rose to prominence in the 1st District, winning the seat as a relatively unknown candidate before serving three terms. He later won the governorship, becoming the last Republican to defeat a Democratic incumbent for that office in South Carolina.
His political career, however, was derailed in 2009 by a widely publicized personal scandal involving an extramarital affair. The episode — often referred to by his claim of hiking the “Appalachian Trail” while he was actually traveling to Argentina — overshadowed much of his time as governor.
Despite the controversy, Sanford returned to Congress in 2013, reclaiming his former seat after winning a competitive primary and runoff. He went on to serve two additional terms before losing the Republican nomination in 2018 to a challenger backed by Donald Trump.
The 1st District seat later flipped to Democrats for the first time in decades before being reclaimed by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in 2020. Mace is not seeking reelection this cycle, opting instead to run for governor.
Now 65, Sanford has remained politically active, including a brief 2020 presidential primary challenge against Trump that centered on concerns about the national debt and federal spending. He ended that campaign ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
Those same fiscal issues are again at the center of his latest campaign. In a statement, Sanford said voters in the district are looking for leadership focused on restoring “financial sanity” in Washington.
Sanford enters the race with a potential financial advantage, having retained more than $1.3 million in a federal campaign account from previous runs — funds he can now deploy in a competitive primary contest.