Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford’s congressional farewell message is a nearly 4,000-word essay that warns of the growing political decay in the era of President Donald Trump. “I want to be clear and explicit that I am not likening Trump to Hitler, but the forces at play could lead to a future Hitler-like character if we don’t watch out,” he wrote in a Facebook posting Wednesday.

Democrat Joe Cunningham is projected win his bid to represent South Carolina’s 1st district, defeating a candidate closely aligned with President Trump and shifting a ruby red coastal district into Democratic hands for the first time in decades. Cunningham, a former ocean engineer turned lawyer, defeated Republican state Rep. Katie Arrington. The seat opened up this year after Arrington toppled Rep. Mark Sanford, an outspoken Trump critic and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, in the GOP primary. While Trump carried the Charleston-area district by about 12 points in 2016, Arrington – who ran on a pro-Trump platform –...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Sunday he was so disgusted at the Kavanaugh confirmation process that he plans to do something he has never done: campaign against a fellow senator. “All I can say is that this is going to the streets, at the ballot box,” said Mr. Graham on “Fox News Sunday.” “I’ve never campaigned against a colleague in my life. That’s about to change.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina Republican who ousted U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford left the hospital Friday, several weeks after she was severely injured in a car wreck, saying she remains focused on her campaign despite her injuries and recovery ahead. During a news conference with reporters, state Rep. Katie Arrington said that she was ready to be discharged from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston but knows she has much rehab ahead of her, particularly in the four months before the November general election. “I am in a great deal of pain, but I want to...

Jim Acosta, a Washington-based CNN reporter, visited South Carolina to cover President Trump's rally on Monday night. Accordingly, Trump supporters chanted, "Go home, Jim!" at the correspondent, who's become a favorite target of the president's base (a status he clearly relishes to some extent). The chant for Acosta to "go home" was described in a Buzzfeed report on the rally as "a taunt that sounded especially menacing when aimed at a reporter with a Hispanic surname and a father who fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba." Put in less tactful language, the contention is that it was racist. It wasn't — it...

Members of the crowd awaiting President Trump's rally in South Carolina on Monday began chanting “Go home, Jim!” at CNN's Jim Acosta. Multiple reporters tweeted that a woman verbally attacked Acosta as he stood in the press area. Crowd members also reportedly chanted "CNN sucks." The jeers from the crowd came as people waited for a Trump rally in West Columbia, S.C., Monday night. Trump traveled to South Carolina to help campaign for Gov. Henry McMaster (R), who facing John Warren (R) in a runoff election. The attacks aimed at Acosta and CNN come just a week after the crowd...

Katie Arrington, who ousted incumbent South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford in a Republican congressional primary this month, was seriously injured in a car accident on Friday -- in a wreck that left one person dead. In a statement posted to Facebook, her campaign said that she underwent surgery after she was injured when a driver traveling in the wrong direction hit her vehicle. A friend who was also in the car was seriously injured.

Lowcountry elected official Katie Arrington is in a local hospital after she and a friend were seriously injured in a deadly wreck in Charleston County late Friday night, authorities say. Arrington, 47, has undergone surgery for treatment of her injuries, and is recovering in a local hospital, spokesman Michael Mule confirms. ... Arrington and her friend, Jacqueline Goff of Louisiana, were traveling southbound on U.S. Highway 17 around 9 p.m. Friday night, when another driver traveling in the wrong direction hit Goff and Arrington's vehicle, according to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office. Goff and Arrington suffered serious injuries requiring hospitalization,...

In case there was any remaining doubt of where the president stood in the race for Florida's next governor, he cleared things up Friday morning with a tweet. Congressman Ron DeSantis, a top student at Yale and Harvard Law School, is running for Governor of the Great State of Florida. Ron is strong on Borders, tough on Crime & big on Cutting Taxes - Loves our Military & our Vets. He will be a Great Governor & has my full Endorsement! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2018 "Congressman Ron DeSantis, a top student at Yale and Harvard Law...

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.

Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!

Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie! 4:12 PM · Jun 12, 2018

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) is limping into his primary on June 12 against State Rep. Katie Arrington, as Sanford’s repeated public rebukes of President Donald Trump on behalf of the Never Trump movement take center stage in this battle for the ages on the campaign trail in the first in the South presidential primary state. Sanford, who ran to CNN to refuse to endorse President Trump’s re-election in April alongside the staunch Never Trumper, retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and others, is by all accounts struggling heading into the primary just over a couple weeks from now.

....Gowdy announced Wednesday that he will retire from Congress at the end of the year, becoming the eighth Republican chairman of a congressional...