By admin 
After mounting and quickly suspending a run for the U.S. House earlier this year, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Thursday he would compete for a six-year term to the Senate.
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“I’m here to ask that you join us in this effort to get Washington’s finances back in order so that indeed our children might be able to live the American Dream,” Sanford said in a video announcing his campaign.
Sanford, 66, a former South Carolina congressman and governor, joins a growing field of candidates vying for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Duke Buckner, Mark Lynch, Mark McBride and Samuel Shepherd filed to run for U.S. Senate on Tuesday. U.S. Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman and Lindsey Graham’s sister, Sen. Darline Graham, also said they would campaign for the seat.
Sanford enters the race with significant cash to communicate with voters. He ended June with nearly $1.4 million cash on hand in his federal fundraising committee, which he recently transitioned into a U.S. Senate account.
In June, he picked up 12%— about 8,000 votes — in the First Congressional District’s Republican primary more than a month after suspending his short-lived U.S. House campaign. The former governor and congressman finished fourth in a crowded 11-person-primary.
When ending his U.S. House campaign in April, Sanford said “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,” in a news release.
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His Senate launch video, like his congressional campaign, focused on reducing the country’s national debt.
“We’re at a tipping point, and that’s why I’ve decided to run for U.S. Senate,” Sanford said in Thursday’s video.
Sanford served three terms in Congress representing the Lowcountry between 1995-2001. He was then elected as governor twice before going back to the U.S. House in 2013. During his tenure as governor, Sanford admitted to having an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. The public initially believed he was hiking the Appalachian trail while visiting her in Argentina.
He lost a reelection bid to congress in 2018 during the primary to Katie Arrington.
Sanford then mounted a challenge to Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
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