Mark Sanford, who has previously served as a governor, congressman, and presidential hopeful, is eyeing a return to the political arena.
The Republican from South Carolina has officially entered the race for the First Congressional District seat in the Charleston area, a position he once held.
Currently occupied by Congresswoman Nancy Mace, the seat is opening up as Mace campaigns for the governorship, opting not to pursue another term in Congress.
Sanford’s political career has been extensive, featuring roles in Congress and as South Carolina’s governor, and he was once considered a potential presidential candidate.
However, his promising trajectory took a hit in 2009 due to a widely publicized affair. Despite the scandal, he completed his term as governor.
He made a brief political comeback by winning back a congressional seat, but his tenure ended in 2018. His attempt to challenge then-President Trump in the 2019 presidential primaries was unsuccessful, appearing to close the chapter on his political revival.
Outside of his well-known cheating scandal, he has also reportedly slept with disgraced journalist Olivia Nuzzi.
Ryan Lizza, a former Politico journalist and Nuzzi’s ex-fiance, claimed she was ‘sleeping with’ former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford years before her ‘digital affair’ with Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Nuzzi attempted to ease back into public life last fall to promote her tell-all book, American Canto, a year after her emotional dalliance with Trump’s health secretary.
Mark Sanford speaks during a news conference in front of the Statehouse, November 12, 2019, in Concord, New Hampshire
Olivia Nuzzi attends the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at Washington Hilton on April 29, 2023 in Washington, DC
But her promotion tour took a turn when Lizza shared a scathing Substack post alleging she cheated on him.
Lizza claimed in a piece titled ‘Part 1: How I Found Out’, published on his outlet Telos News, that he found a love note Nuzzi had allegedly written ‘a famous politician, 32 years older than Olivia, and well-known for a sex scandal.’
However, the famous politician was not RFK Jr – and was allegedly Sanford, whom Nuzzi had profiled for New York Magazine when he launched his long-shot 2020 presidential bid.
‘If I swallowed every drop of water from the tower above your house, I would still thirst for you,’ she allegedly wrote to Sanford in a lurid passage Lizza shared.
Describing his on-off relationship with Nuzzi as ‘turbulent’, Lizza said he and Nuzzi fell in love when he extricated her from a ‘strings attached’ partnership with former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, 66.
Lizza recalled discovering the note she had written to Sanford after it had scattered from her backpack.
After looking through further pages, Lizza said: ‘My heart stopped when I realized who he was.’
Lizza, a former Washington correspondent for Politico, describes feeling devastated over ‘Olivia’s betrayal’ and worried that it would ruin a book the pair were writing together about the 2020 presidential campaign.
He wrote that Nuzzi told him she became ‘infatuated’ with Sanford after covering him for New York Magazine, eventually sending him ‘increasingly risqué pictures and texts’ and even ‘secretly followed him on the campaign trail.’
He then alleges that Nuzzi and Sanford ‘consummated’ their relationship at the ex-governor’s home ‘one night after she went dark on me and made up a story about how she was dealing with a crisis concerning her sick mother.’
Lizza concluded his bombshell post by revealing he called his agent: ‘We have a big problem. Olivia is sleeping with Mark Sanford.’
Sanford’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
Sanford is a last-minute entrant into the primary field to replace Mace, which currently includes at least eight other Republicans per Ballotpedia. Representative Mark Smith is the only state-level legislator in the race. County council members Jay Byars, Logan Cunningham, and Jenny Costa Honeycutt are also in the mix.
The primary is June 9th, with a runoff planned for two weeks later on June 23rd.
