Former Rep. and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican who has been openly critical of President Donald Trump, entered the U.S. Senate race Thursday, adding another prominent name to the crowded GOP field competing for the seat of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and challenging Trump’s preferred candidate.
“We’re at a tipping point, and that’s why I’ve decided to run for the U.S. Senate,” Sanford said in a campaign launch video.
He urged voters to judge him by his time in public office, saying, “I’d ask that you look at my record in Congress and as governor in watching out for your family’s future.”
Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed last week to serve out the remainder of her late brother’s term, said Monday on Fox News’ “Hannity” that she will seek a full six-year term. Her announcement came three days after a White House meeting with Trump, who offered his “complete and total endorsement” and encouraged her to run.
Still, the president’s support for Graham’s sister has not cleared the Republican field in South Carolina.
Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, who made an unsuccessful bid this year for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the race to replace term-limited South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, announced over the weekend that he plans to run for the Senate seat.
Two-term GOP Rep. Russell Fry entered the race Monday, while businessman Mark Lynch — who lost to Lindsey Graham by nearly 30 points in last month’s Republican Senate primary — also said he would make another attempt at winning the nomination.
The special Republican Senate primary is scheduled for Aug. 11.
If no candidate tops 50%, a runoff election will be held among the top two voter-getters on Aug. 25.
Sanford, who served three terms in the U.S. House in the 1990s, won election as South Carolina governor in 2002 and was re-elected four years later.
A rising conservative star in the GOP, he grabbed national attention and derailed his political career following an extramarital affair in 2009.
But Sanford made a political comeback, winning election to his old seat in Congress in 2012 and served three terms.
He briefly launched a longshot and unsuccessful presidential nomination challenge against Trump in the 2020 primaries.
Known as a fiscally conservative budget hawk, Sanford pointed to the nation’s debt as a key motivator behind his decision to launch a Senate campaign.
“Our country is at a financial tipping point, and I can’t sit on the sidelines while Washington adds a trillion dollars to the debt every 100 days,” Sanford explained.
“I’m worried for our children because for the first time, America is borrowing from the future faster than we’re building it.”
Unlike Sanford, Fry and Norman, who are both Trump allies in the House, are highlighting their support for the president.
“South Carolina doesn’t need just another senator. It needs President Trump’s strongest ally in the United States Senate. Make no mistake: I will be President Trump’s favorite U.S. Senator, and you will have a MAGA fighter you can count on,” Fry wrote in a social media post as he announced his Senate run.
Fry described himself as a “MAGA warrior” in an accompanying video, which included pictures of him smiling alongside Trump.
Norman emphasized that he’s “running to represent the people of South Carolina in the U.S. Senate because we need a fighter who will stand with President Trump and carry on Lindsey Graham’s legacy!”
And pointing to Trump’s top legislative priority, he noted, “I want to get the SAVE America Act passed in the Senate!”
Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, conservatives and staunch Trump allies in the chamber, both cited Norman’s support for Trump’s election reform bill as they went against the president and endorsed the congressman.
Norman is also being backed by the political arm of the powerful conservative group Turning Point USA.
Norman also landed the backing of Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
The endorsement by Mace, first reported by Fox News Digital, came after the retiring congresswoman who earlier this year unsuccessfully ran for governor, announced on Monday that she wouldn’t run for the Senate.
Besides the president’s powerful endorsement, Graham does have the backing of heavy hitters in Congress, including Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who said, “Darline Graham is an excellent senator. She’ll continue to be an excellent senator, and she has my full support.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., however, is staying out of the race for now.
Thune said that Graham is a “strong candidate,” and though she lacked elected experience, he noted she was “very accomplished in her own life.”
“She has a right, like everybody else, to get in that race,” Thune said.
Backed by Trump’s endorsement and enjoying plenty of name recognition thanks to her well-known last name, pundits view Darline Graham as a frontrunner in the three-week sprint to the Republican primary.
And the winner of the GOP nomination will be considered the clear favorite against Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in the general election in the solidly red southeastern state.
Trump’s endorsements aren’t infallible, but his track record so far this cycle, albeit a couple of setbacks, is impressive.
Veteran Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams noted that “the Trump endorsement is a major boost for any candidacy, but it doesn’t necessarily give you a lock on the seat.”
“Senate seats in South Carolina do not come up very often, and politics is all about timing. You’ve got to seize the opportunity when it presents itself,” Williams told Fox News Digital.
“If you’re an aspiring House member in South Carolina, this is your time to run, regardless of whom the president is supporting.”
And Williams, referring to Norman and Fry, noted, “There’s no downside for running. They’re going to run as Trump Republicans, and they’re going to flatter the president on the campaign trail.”
That’s likely not the case for Sanford, who didn’t mention Trump in his social media post or his accompanying campaign launch video.
