Mark Sanford

Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford Jr. (born May 28, 1960) is an American politician and author who served as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2013 to 2019, and also as the 115th governor of South Carolina from 2003 to 2011.

He is a member of the Republican Party.

Sanford received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Furman University in 1983 and a Master of Business Administration degree from Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia in 1988.

Sanford married Jenny Sullivan in November 1989.

The couple had four sons.

Sanford founded Norton and Sanford Real Estate Investment, a leasing and brokerage company, in 1992.

Sanford was first elected to Congress in 1994.

In 1994, Sanford entered the Republican primary for the Charleston-based 1st Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

The seat had come open after four-term Republican incumbent Arthur Ravenel declined to seek re-election in his ultimately unsuccessful run for governor.

Despite having never run for office before, Sanford finished second in a crowded primary behind Van Hipp Jr.., a former George H. W. Bush administration official and former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

Sanford defeated Van Hipp in the runoff.

He then easily defeated Democratic state representative Robert A. Barber Jr. in the November general election, winning by 66.3% to 32.4%.

He represented South Carolina's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001.

Sanford was unopposed by Democratic candidates in 1996 and 1998.

In 1996, he beat Joseph Innella of the Natural Law Party by 96.36% to 3.55%.

He voted against pork barrel projects even when they benefited his own district; in 1997, he voted against a defense appropriations bill that included funds for Charleston's harbor.

He beat Innella again in 1998, this time by 91% to 8.9%.

While in Congress, Sanford was recognized as its most fiscally conservative member by the Cato Institute.

He was also recognized by Citizens Against Government Waste, as well as the National Tax Payers Union, for his efforts to rein in government spending and reduce the national deficit.

He garnered a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union.

He was known for voting against bills that otherwise received unanimous support.

For example, he voted against a bill that preserved sites linked to the Underground Railroad.

Seeing himself as a "citizen-legislator", he did not run for reelection in 2000, in keeping with a promise to serve only three terms in the House.

Committee assignments

He decided against running for a fourth term in the house and instead focused on running in the 2002 gubernatorial election.

In the election, he defeated Democratic incumbent Jim Hodges with 52% of the vote.

Sanford ran for reelection in 2006, defeating businessman Tommy Moore with 55% of the vote.

As governor, Sanford attempted to reject $700 million in stimulus funds for South Carolina from the federal Recovery Act passed in 2009, but the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that only the state legislature—not the governor—had the authority to accept or decline the funds.

In June 2009, after having disappeared from the state for nearly a week, Sanford publicly revealed that he had engaged in an extramarital affair.

He had led his staff to believe that he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail, but actually went to visit his mistress, Maria Belén Chapur, in Argentina.

Although the scandal made national headlines, leading to his censure by the South Carolina General Assembly and his resignation as chair of the Republican Governors Association, Sanford did complete his second term as governor.

Sanford ran for Congress again in a 2013 special election for his old seat.

He won the election and served in Congress from 2013 to 2019.

He lost his 2018 reelection bid in a Republican primary.

In September 2019, Sanford announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election.

He dropped out of the race on November 12, 2019.

Marshall Clement Sanford Jr. was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Marshall Clement Sanford, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and Margaret Elise "Peggy" Pitz.

His family was fairly well-to-do, but slept in the same room to conserve electricity.

Before his senior year of high school, Sanford moved with his family from Fort Lauderdale to the 3000 acre Coosaw Plantation near Beaufort, South Carolina.

Sanford attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.