Stay informed with the LNN Daily Newsletter

Ex-SC Gov. Mark Sanford to challenge Trump in primary

Sep 8, 2019 | 7:53 AM

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor and congressman, has decided to launch a longshot Republican challenge to President Donald Trump.

“I am here to tell you now that I am going to get in,” Sanford said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

When asked why he was taking on an incumbent who’s popular within the party, Sanford said: “I think we need to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican. I think that as the Republican Party, we have lost our way.”

The 59-year-old Sanford has long been an outspoken critic of Trump’s. He frequently questioned Trump’s motivations and qualifications during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and called Trump’s candidacy “a particularly tough pill to swallow.”