Sanford: ‘I think that I’ll end up losing this election’
South Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Sanford all but conceded his primary bid Tuesday night as it appears more and more certain he will lose to a state lawmaker who had weaponized the congressman’s criticism of President Trump.
Speaking at his campaign’s election night event, as state Rep. Katie Arrington continued to hold a significant lead over him, Sanford admitted he’s likely to be booted from office.
“I’ve always been a realist and at this point, based on the numbers I see, I think that I’ll end up losing this election,” he said.
{mosads}Arrington has blasted Sanford as a “Never Trumper” for his repeated criticism of the president — he argued last year that Trump “has fanned the flames of intolerance” and is one of the leading GOP voices calling for Trump to release his taxes. Trump even endorsed her bid late Tuesday afternoon in a tweet sent just hours before the polls closed.
Sanford has had a long career in South Carolina politics, first as a congressman and then as governor, before returning to Congress in 2013. Up until tonight, he had never lost a race, even after the revelation that he had been having an affair threatened to end his political career.
Sanford went on to warn about the “inflection point we are at in American politics,” lamenting how arguments about his record “aren’t selling right now in Washington.” And he addressed his disagreements with Trump, arguing that he had only sought to stand up for his values.
“I’m neither for nor against Trump. I’m for ideas that I’ve long stood for of the entirety of my carer in politics based on limited government,” Sanford said.
“It may have cost me an election in this case, but I stand by every one of those decisions to disagree with the president because I didn’t think, at the end of the day, it was concurrent with the promises I made when i first ran for office or the voices of the very people of the 1st District.”
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