Former South Carolina Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford announces primary challenge to President Trump.

Mark Sanford. Official photo. 

Former South Carolina Governor and Congressman Mark Sanford announces a primary challenge to President Trump. AP. The longshot candidate joins Bill Weld and Joe Walsh as unlikely challengers. Sanford admits that many of his friends do not want him to run and that his chances of winning are extremely small. However, he claims to be running on a platform of deficit spending reduction. Sanford voted for President Trump in 2016 but has been a vocal critic. President Trump also endorsed his 2018 congressional primary opponent Katie Arrignton, who defeated Sanford, but was in turn defeated by Democrat Joe Cunningham. Sanford was also famous for a sex scandal that happened while he was governor of South Carolina. 

My Comment:

Looks like another never-Trump loser wants to get onto the talk show and book circuit tour. Sanford's career was over after his primary defeat in 2018 and he needed someway to try and revive it. His attempt to unseat President Trump will almost certainly fail, many states aren't even bothering to running primary elections in 2020, but it will help Sanford return to the news. 

As I mentioned when Joe Walsh announced his run, this is pretty much a joke. President Trump's approval rating among Republicans is around 85 to 90%, which is extremely high, among the highest ratings you have had historically. There isn't a lane for an anti-Trump Republican at all. Given that even a Democrat beating President Trump is fairly unlikely, I have no idea how a Republican is going to primary him. 

I do think that Sanford has a point about deficit spending. That's a problem that hasn't gone away regardless of which party is in power in Washington. It certainly isn't a priority for GOP leadership today. Everyone thinks that it's a problem that we can just ignore, and so far they have been right, but I do think it's a question worth asking. 

Of course, if Sanford was serious about making a difference in that issue, he could always just run for his old seat in the house. He might lose another primary but if he actually cares about reducing the deficit, doing it in Congress would be a good start. Assuming he could win he'd be a better choice than the Democrat that is holding the seat, which is damning by faint praise to say the least. 

But, again, I don't think this really is about the deficit. Sanford knows that the only kind of Republican that the media likes are the RINO's who go on CNN or MSNBC and do nothing but bash their fellow conservatives. There is a lot of money to be made on this as these networks love to gaslight people into thinking that both Democrats and Republicans are opposed to GOP leadership, when nothing is further from the truth. There is an entire class of supposed Republicans who do this and they have made names for themselves among the media elite. It's a good job if you can get it and don't mind betraying your party. 

I do have to say that hearing Sanford's name has brought up some funny memories. Sanford will always be most famous for his sex scandal. I posted a link above but in short Sanford was governor of South Carolina and just simply disappeared. His aides said he was hiking in the Appalachians but was really in Argentina cheating on his wife with a reporter. Sanford somehow survived that scandal but it was such big news at the time that it warrants an entire Wikipedia article.