Now, six years have passed and Sanford said voters are paying closer attention to government spending, the national debt and deficit — and what it means for future generations.
“Our nation’s debt is the issue that will define whether this country survives in the form we’ve known it,” Sanford said in a press release. “It will also define how young and old fare over the years ahead, because inflation and interest rates, the value of the dollar, and our ability to afford all that goes with building and sustaining our lives will be driven by what happens next in confronting Washington’s addiction to spending money we don’t have on programs we can’t afford.”
He will enter the contest with a $1.3 million war chest, eligible money that was raised from his past federal campaigns for Congress and president.
Some Republican candidates in the race quickly criticized Sanford’s entry, arguing voters have already rendered their verdict on his time in office.
Mount Pleasant Republican state Rep. Mark Smith said Sanford’s return is driven more by personal ambition than public demand.
“Mark Sanford is back — not because the Lowcountry asked for him, but because he cannot give up the spotlight,” Smith said. “South Carolinians remember exactly who he is.”
Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars pointed to Sanford’s past support for term limits.
“Back then, he was promising to term-limit himself,” Byars said. “Now 30 years later he’s back again.”
Meanwhile, GOP candidate Tyler Dykes blasted both Sanford and Smith as “establishment RINO politicians who will do nothing to actually help the Lowcountry.”
Sanford last ran for Congress in 2018, losing a Republican primary after President Donald Trump backed his challenger, Katie Arrington — a defeat that cost him his Lowcountry seat.
Sanford also became a repeated Trump foil, with the president repeatedly attacking Sanford when the former congressman tried to make Trump’s bullying behavior an example behind the decay of American politics.
