Free Republic

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...

A highly publicized extramarital affair didn’t end Mark Sanford’s political career. Nor did the revelation, less than a month before a 2013 special election for Congress, that he had to go to court because his ex-wife had accused him of trespassing. The National Republican Congressional Committee’s decision to cut off funding to him that year was also not a fatal blow. He won his next elections. Then came Donald Trump. Sanford has been one of the president’s most vocal Republican critics in Congress, and Republican primary voters punished him for it. Sanford lost Tuesday night to Katie Arrington, a state...

COLUMBIA, SC 9:23 p.m. With 48 percent of the vote in, it's starting to look like Arrington could win the GOP nomination without a runoff. Arrington has 52 percent of the vote to incumbent Mark Sanford's 45 percent, according to the AP.

Voters in South Carolina nominated a black Republican lawmaker for an open congressional seat Tuesday, rejecting a legendary political name and potentially changing the face of the national party. State Rep. Tim Scott defeated Paul Thurmond, an attorney who is son of the one-time segregationist U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Scott, who won the runoff with 69 percent of the vote, is now poised to become the nation's first black GOP congressman since 2003. Scott, 44, owns an insurance business and became the first black Republican in the South Carolina Legislature in more than a century when elected two years ago....

Jenerette Campaign: It’s Amazing Old Man Brown Can Feed Himself We got a look this morning at the official press announcement on Katherine Jenerette’s run for Congressman Henry Brown’s District 1 seat and noticed a bit of a theme for this challenge to her fellow Republican: “… announced her bid for the Republican nomination for the 1st District US Congressional Seat, currently held by 72-year old Rep. Henry Brown of Hanahan.” “… we needed ‘new-blood’ and a new aggressive conservative congressman to represent the 1st District in Congress.” “…our district here in South Carolina has changed tremendously over the years.”...