Mark Sanford, the Republican former South Carolina governor and congressman whose political ambitions were dampened by a high-profile affair, is set to run for his old House seat this fall.
Mr. Sanford’s return to politics comes six years after his last campaign: a long-shot, four-month presidential bid against President Trump in 2019. That campaign ended with Mr. Sanford’s acknowledgment that there was no space in a Republican primary race for someone focused on fiscal conservatism — or for an alternative to Mr. Trump, who was running for re-election at the time.
Mr. Sanford, 65, has seen his star in Republican politics rise and fall several times over the last two decades. He was considered a possible candidate for the 2012 presidential race until he vanished without explanation in 2009, infamously leaving his aides to explain to reporters that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Instead, he was having an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.
In a preview of the post-shame national politics to come, Mr. Sanford refused calls to resign and completed his term as governor.
Mr. Sanford has filed paperwork to join a crowded Republican primary for South Carolina’s First Congressional District, a district currently held by Representative Nancy Mace that covers much of the state’s Lowcountry along the coast. Ms. Mace, a Republican, is running for governor instead of seeking re-election.
The 10 other Republican candidates in the June 9 primary include a state legislator, three county officials, a car dealer, a lawyer, a doctor and a retired Marine who was pardoned by Mr. Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
As of early Monday evening, Mr. Sanford had not yet publicly announced his candidacy, but he had filed paperwork to run and indicated to the local news media that he would seek his old seat.
“People have been telling me it’s time to get off the bleachers,” Mr. Sanford told The Post and Courier, a newspaper in Charleston, S.C. He told the paper his campaign would focus on reducing the national debt, an issue Mr. Trump has mostly ignored as president.
Mr. Sanford’s first comeback attempt after the 2009 affair was successful: In 2012, he won a special election to the House. After Mr. Trump won the 2016 election, Mr. Sanford emerged as a rare Republican voice of opposition.
Mr. Trump responded in kind, assailing Mr. Sanford and endorsing Katie Arrington, Mr. Sanford’s right-wing primary opponent in 2018, which helped her defeat Mr. Sanford in an upset before she fell to a Democrat in the general election.
When Mr. Sanford briefly ran for president a year later, his campaign garnered little attention, and he dropped out three months before votes were cast. Mr. Sanford published a book detailing his political beliefs in 2021, but has largely receded from public life during the Trump years.
Mr. Sanford did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Kellen Browning contributed reporting.
Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.
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