The Dictatorship
Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 7.24.26: Mark Sanford launches comeback bid in South Carolina
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In South Carolina’s Republican Senate primarythe late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham, is an appointed incumbent seeking a full term with President Donald Trump’s blessing, but she hasn’t cleared the GOP field ahead of the state’s Aug. 11 special primary.
Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman have launched campaigns for the seat, and this week, a third high-profile contender threw his hat into the ring: Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford joined the race Thursday afternoon.
Sanford brings one of the more unusual resumes of any politician in the country. He served a few terms in Congress in the late 1990s, before serving two terms as South Carolina’s governor — a tenure that included the infamous “Appalachian Trail” sex scandal. The Republican nevertheless returned to Congress for six more years before losing in a GOP primary in which he was accused of being insufficiently loyal to Trump.
Sanford then lost an ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign, before launching a congressional comeback bid earlier this year, which only lasted a few weeks. Now, evidently, the South Carolinian is launching yet another comeback bid.
* In Georgiaa new bipartisan poll from AARP found Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff with a relatively comfortable lead over Republican Rep. Mike Collins, 52% to 43%.
* Speaking of the Peach Statethe same AARP poll found former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms with a smaller lead over Republican Rick Jackson, 48% to 46%, in Georgia’s gubernatorial race.
* In Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate raceformer Republican Rep. Mike Rogers held a recent private call with supporters in which he said his candidacy will be in “pretty good shape” if Democrats nominate former public health official Abdul El-Sayed in an Aug. 4 primary. “I think we’ll do well if he in fact is the nominee,” Rogers added.
* In Florida’s gubernatorial raceRepublican Rep. Byron Donalds just received a major financial boost from billionaire megadonor Ken Griffin, who’s investing $10 million in support of the congressman’s candidacy.
* As if gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx weren’t already one of the nation’s most controversial statewide candidates, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office is now seeking penalties against the candidate for accepting illegal campaign contributions.
* And as MS NOW’s Jordan Rubin explained this week“A new court ruling approving Tennessee’s congressional map that dilutes Black voting power is the latest example of how the Supreme Court’s GOP-appointed majority is helping Republicans win elections.”
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”