Posted on 06/12/2018 9:28:08 PM PDT by iowamark
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) appears to have lost his Tuesday primary, which became a referendum on his criticism of President Trump.
State Rep. Katie Arrington, who hammered Sanford as a traitor to President Trump, is projected to win the GOP primary in a victory that may spell the end of Sanford’s long political career in the state.
The Associated Press called the race at 12:09 a.m., with Arrington leading Sanford by 51-47 percent margin with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Sanford becomes the second incumbent to lose a reelection primary bid this cycle.
Sanford had never lost an election until Tuesday, even after he was caught having an affair in 2009 while governor in a revelation that also threatened his political career. But his willingness to criticize Trump, who is lionized by the GOP primary electorate, proved politically fatal.
The congressman may not have had a difficult primary fight but for his repeated criticisms of Trump both during the election and since the president took office. In 2017, he told Politico that Trump “has fanned the flames of intolerance” and has been one of the few GOP lawmakers to demand Trump release his tax returns.
That criticism became the centerpiece of Arrington’s campaign—she blasted Sanford as a “Never Trumper” on the stump and in campaign ads, arguing that the district would be best served by a Trump ally instead of an antagonist. She also savaged him for his affair, airing an innuendo-laden television ad that told Sanford to “take a hike,” a reference to his initial cover story that he had been hiking the Appalachian Trail when he had really caught a flight to Argentina to see his mistress.
That strategy won Arrington a last minute endorsement of Trump...
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Winning!
Bush League Republicans hell bent on making America into North Mexico must become extinct politically before the Republic does.
Voters told him to take a hike.
Aw geez, the article beat me to it.
Yes! And another one bites the dust.
Good riddance.
How is it he has ANY political life if he is not a democrat?
So..can the GOPe go thad cochran on Katie?
He could have jumped on the Trump Train but for some reason he decided he didn’t want to.
Very, very few - if any at all - Trump supporters in the House or Senate have “retired” before the 2018 elections.
Many - if not all - of the “retirees” (quitters!) have been strong GROPElite Never-Trumperts!
With nothing to lose, he can go all in for amnesty before he leaves.
Bye Bye Mark.
I have the feeling he will be back running for something.
He might believe that politics is all that he has now, sort of like Alan Grayson (Mr. Die Quickly!).
She got over 50% of the vote. There will be no run off.
Sanford has a good voting record. Thge Freedom Caucus members liked him.
I’ll predict that he doesn’t.
I see what you did there.
That’s odd because all the freerepublic knowitalls (you know who you are) said Trump coming out for support of Sanford’s opponent TODAY was “a wasted effort, too little too late, why bother? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH”
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