Disgraced Republican lawmaker throws in towel on comeback effort in South Carolina

Disgraced South Carolina politician Mark Sanford is ending his comeback bid — before it even had a chance to properly begin.

According to The Post and Courier, Sanford will suspend his campaign to reclaim his old congressional seat, just 30 days after he first announced: "The former South Carolina governor and congressman confirmed his plans to The Post and Courier April 29, a day before he intends to make his exit official. 'What has hit me over the last month is how the debt and deficit spending issue that I care dearly about will be a change that comes to Washington, rather than from Washington,' Sanford told the newspaper."

Sanford previously represented the state's 1st Congressional District between 1995 and 2001, then again from 2013 to 2019. Between his two stints, he served as governor.

In his second term as governor, he became nationally famous for an infidelity scandal, in which he vanished for days, allegedly to hike the Appalachian Trail, when in reality he was visiting his mistress in Argentina.

He left Congress in 2019, after he lost his primary battle to Katie Arrington. Democrats briefly captured the district as part of the 2018 blue wave, before losing it again to Rep. Nancy Mace in the next cycle.

Mace is now running for governor herself, and with Sanford ending his campaign, the election for the 1st District is now wide open.