Well, maybe Republicans haven’t let bygones be bygones with Rep. Mark Sanford after all. Sanford defeated state Rep. Jenny Horne in the GOP primary in South Carolina’s safely red 1st Congressional District, but by a surprisingly thin 56-44 margin. Horne briefly captured national attention last year when she called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the South Carolina state House grounds, but it didn’t look like she was gaining much momentum against the incumbent. Horne raised just $115,000 during her entire campaign against Sanford, and no major organizations came to her aid.
However, Sanford is no normal congressman. While serving as governor, Sanford went missing for several days in 2009 when he secretly visited his mistress in Argentina. Sanford left office a punch line (and forever tainting the phrase "hiking the Appalachian Trail"), but he resurrected his career when he won a 2013 special election. Sanford won that year’s GOP primary 57-43 against another underfunded foe, so it seems that there’s a very consistent block of Republican voters who just don’t like him even after all these years.
Sanford, who is obsessively frugal (he famously ordered his employees to use both sides of Post-it-notes and index cards) also barely dipped into his almost $1 million campaign account. He doesn’t have anything more to worry about in 2016, but his weak performance could encourage a stronger primary challenger to go after him if he seeks re-election next cycle.