Trump has another Republican challenger, Mark Sanford

Washington (AFP) - Former Republican governor Mark Sanford announced Sunday he is entering the race for his party's presidential nomination, in a long-shot challenge to President Donald Trump.

Sanford, who would be the third Republican to mount a primary bid against Trump, said he had decided to run because of the "astounding" debt and deficits piled up during his presidency.

"I think as a Republican party we have lost our way," he said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday."

"The president has called himself the king of debt, has a familiarity and comfort level with debt that I think ultimately is leading us in the wrong direction."

Sanford's decision comes amid reports that Republican officials in some states, including his home state of South Carolina as well as Nevada and Arizona, are considering canceling their 2020 primaries.

Asked whether he really thought he could defeat Trump, Sanford replied: "I'm saying, you never know."

"I'm listing my goals, my primary goals to say let's go out and force, or try and create a conversation on that which is not being talked about in this presidential cycle," he said.

WIKI EXCERPT From June 18 until June 24, 2009, the whereabouts of Gov Sanford were unknown to the public, his wife and the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for all South Carolina governors, garnering nationwide news coverage. The absence of Governor Sanford was first reported by Jim Davenport of the Associated Press.[37][38] Lieutenant Governor André Bauer announced that he could not “take lightly that his staff has not had communication with him for more than four days, and that no one, including his own family, knows his whereabouts.”[39]

Before his disappearance, Sanford told his staff that he would be hiking on the Appalachian Trail and while he was gone he did not answer 15 cell phone calls from his chief of staff; he also failed to call his family on Father’s Day.[40]

Reporter Gina Smith, of The State, the daily newspaper of the capital city, intercepted Sanford arriving at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport on a flight from Argentina. Several hours later, after learning that incriminating evidence was being swiftly mobilized against him by the media, Sanford held a news conference, during which he admitted to adultery.[41][42]

In emotional interviews with the Associated Press over two days, Sanford said he would die “knowing that I had met my soul mate.”[43] Sanford also said that he “crossed the lines” with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage, but not as far as he did with his mistress. “There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn’t have crossed as a married man, but never crossed the ultimate line”, he said.[43] In 1998 during the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal Sanford had called Clinton’s extra-marital affair “reprehensible” and had urged him to resign.[44]

On June 25, La Nación, a Buenos Aires newspaper, identified the Argentine woman as María Belén Chapur, a 43-year-old divorced mother of two with a university degree in international relations who lives in the city of Buenos Aires.[45] The State earlier had published details of e-mails between Sanford and a woman only identified as “Maria.”[46] Sanford met Chapur at a dance in Uruguay in 2001 and admitted there was a more intimate relationship with her starting in 2008.[47]

Sanford’s wife had become aware of her husband’s infidelities around five months before the scandal broke, and the two had sought marriage counseling.[42] She said that she had requested a trial separation about two weeks before his disappearance.[48]

Sanford told reporters that months before his affair became public he had sought counsel at a controversial religious organization called The Family, of which he became a member when he was a Representative in Washington, D.C. from 1995 to 2001.[49]

Fallout from scandal
After telling Vogue magazine that her husband was having a ”midlife crisis,” Sanford’s wife, Jenny Sanford, moved out of the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion, with the couple’s four sons, returning to the family home on Sullivan’s Island.[50][51] On December 11, 2009, she announced that she was filing for divorce, calling it a “sad and painful process.”[52] The divorce was finalized in March 2010.[53] A stipulation within his divorce papers demanded that while on the Sanford family’s Coosaw plantation, “no airplanes will be flown at children.” The papers also noted that Sanford liked to ”unwind” by digging holes on the property with his hydraulic excavator.[54]

Sanford posted lengthy remarks on his Facebook page on September 12, 2014, regarding his ex-wife’s “legal machinations surrounding the custody of their children.” His remarks on Facebook are longer than the total of all his 2014 speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives.[55]

Also in September 2014, Sanford and his ex-wife agreed on mediation over an argument arising from their divorce in 2010. Sanford’s former wife unsuccessfully petitioned the judge to require that Sanford undergo a psychiatric exam and take parenting and anger management classes. Judge Daniel Martin Jr. said he instead ordered them to take the issues to mediation within 30 days, as requested by a motion filed by the U.S. representative.[56]

Resignation as Chairman of the RGA
Sanford resigned as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association,[57][58] and he was swiftly succeeded by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.[59] In a June 29 email to members of his political action committee, Sanford said he had no intention of resigning as governor.[60]

Reimbursement for his private use of public funds
After his affair was revealed in June 2009, Sanford first claimed, “There’s been a lot of speculation and innuendo on whether or not public moneys were used to advance my admitted unfaithfulness. To be very clear: no public money was ever used in connection with this.”[61] After a reporter used the Freedom of Information Act to seek records of what public funds were used to pay for Sanford’s trip to Argentina,[62] Sanford eventually chose to reimburse taxpayers for expenses he had incurred one year earlier with his mistress in Argentina.[63] He said, “I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with. That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip.” On August 9, 2009, the AP reported that Sanford may have violated state law by other abusive use of state planes, including to fly to get a haircut.[64]

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