By Sam Spence | Mark Sanford, the former governor and congressman who weathered scandal only to be undone by President Donald Trump, will release his memoir Aug. 24.
Sanford’s political career spanned four presidents and played out in three acts, from an initial election to Congress to serving as South Carolina governor to an improbable second stint in the U.S. House. He also ran for president briefly in the 2020 cycle. The memoir charts each winding phase, fittingly affixed with the 17-word title, Two Roads Diverged: A Second Chance for the Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, the Nation — and Ourselves.
The book promises Sanford’s side of “the complex story of his all-too-public personal life while making a plea for conservatives to return to the Party of Lincoln and abandoning the Cult of Trump,” according to a press release.
Sanford was once poised to lead the national conservative movement as governor during the early Obama administration, until a 2009 overseas love affair put his name in tabloid-esque headlines and triggered a laborious forgiveness campaign. After finishing his term in office, Sanford mounted a comeback with a quirky 2013 congressional campaign to retake his former seat in Congress. But when Donald Trump endorsed Republican Katie Arrington, then a state representative, Sanford lost the primary and was back on the sidelines.
Scott English, Sanford’s longtime aide in Columbia and Washington, said despite his old boss’ continued “owning” of his misdeeds, the book still doesn’t quite connect to the reason why it might be difficult for it to find an audience.
“I don’t think he’s really put it to rest. That continues to make him a problematic messenger,” he told the City Paper. “There was no human element to it.”
“It goes back to the Mark Sanford standard that he set for me and he should set for himself: Your ideas are only as good as your ability to get people to follow you,” he said. “My question is: Who’s following him?”
Sam Spence is editor of the Charleston City Paper, where this story first appeared today.
In other recent headlines:
State lawmakers to visit to talk, listen on redistricting. House and Senate committee members will each visit once over the next six weeks to hear from voters as they prepare to redraw political districts in every corner of South Carolina. Updated data from the 2020 census is expected to be delivered to state leaders by mid-August, with new population figures impacting where district lines will fall until the next census in 2030.
Columbia senator sues after state attorney general’s anti-mask mandate. S.C. Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, has asked the state Supreme Court for a ruling on whether public colleges can require masks for unvaccinated students on campus after a letter by the S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson. More coverage.
Company with obscene name gets federal loan. This story has local prim and proper tongues wagging.
Tropical weather pattern brewing. There’s a 60 percent chance of a tropical wave off the African coast developing into a tropical depression that may influence weather here, the National Hurricane Center says.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
I follow him, but that’s mainly because i find him so attractive. and that’s good enough for me.