Morning Digest: Look who's back for one last hike
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Leading OffSC-01The one and only Mark Sanford said Monday that he would seek the Republican nomination to once again represent South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, a surprise announcement he made just hours before candidate filing closed. “Our nation’s debt is the issue that will define whether this country survives in the form we’ve known it,” Sanford, a Republican who served as governor from 2003 to 2011 between two stints in Congress, declared in a statement launching his latest comeback campaign. “It will also define how young and old fare over the years ahead.” But while Sanford, whose 2009 sex scandal briefly made him the world’s most famous hiker, once again attracted intense attention on Monday, it was not for his positions on fiscal policy. “South Carolinians remember exactly who he is,” said state Rep. Mark Smith, one of 10 other Republicans running in the June 9 primary. “A governor who went missing. A politician who turned his back on President Trump. A person who espouses term limits and runs again and again.” Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars, who is also seeking the GOP nod for the conservative constituency that Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is giving up to run for governor, likewise attacked Sanford, arguing that he’d failed to look out for his constituents as a congressman and as governor. “A major reason I’m running is the fact that our district has been woefully underfunded in infrastructure for decades,” Byars wrote of his bid to represent the state’s central coastline and many of Charleston’s suburbs. “Sanford was a major reason for that in both DC and Columbia.” Other notable Republicans hoping to succeed Mace include Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt; Air Force veteran Alex Pelbath; Beaufort County Councilman Logan Cunningham; and Sam McCown, a physician who ended 2025 with far more cash than any of his rivals thanks to heavy self-funding. The lineup also features four little-known candidates. The large number of contenders makes it unlikely that anyone will earn the majority of the vote needed to avert a runoff on June 23. Before Monday, it looked unlikely that Sanford would try to re-reclaim the House seat he first won in 1994. Sanford, who became a national punchline during his second term as governor, resurrected his career in 2013 by winning a special election for his old House seat, but he hasn’t been on the ballot since 2018. His campaign that year did not go well, as Sanford made himself a GOP pariah all over again by ardently criticizing Trump. The congressman, who had told Politico’s Tim Alberta that Trump “has fanned the flames of intolerance,” acknowledged his comments would probably spell the end of his time in office. But with a smile, Sanford informed Alberta, “I’m a dead man walking. If you’ve already been dead, you don’t fear it as much. I’ve been dead politically.” Sanford’s prophecy proved correct: State Rep. Katie Arrington delivered the killing blow when she defeated him 51-47 in the GOP primary. However, Arrington’s success was fleeting, as she narrowly lost the general election to Democrat Joe Cunningham in a massive upset. Sanford went on to wage a hopeless primary bid against Trump during the 2020 cycle, though he suspended his campaign well before any voting took place. Cunningham, meanwhile, lost reelection that same year to Mace, whose penchant for generating bizarre headlines rivals Sanford’s in his prime. Sanford, though, kept an uncharacteristically low profile until early 2025, when Pluribus reported that he was interested in reclaiming the governorship. While Sanford never took any obvious steps to prepare for another campaign, he wasn’t out of the public view for long. Journalist Ryan Lizza published a multi-part confessional in November alleging that his then-partner, Olivia Nuzzi, had an illicit relationship with Sanford in 2020. Neither Sanford nor Nuzzi has said anything publicly about Lizza’s claims. Axios later reported in February that Sanford was still weighing a run for governor, though the outlet added that he was now considering a campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham as well as a bid for his old seat in the House. His first public word on his interest in running for any of these offices did not come until Monday, though, when he said he would try to return to the House—again. The eventual GOP nominee will be favored in the general election for a constituency that Republican map-makers made more conservative to guard against the type of surprise that Cunningham delivered in 2018. To achieve their goals, GOP lawmakers moved heavily Black communities, where Democrats typically earn overwhelming support, from the 1st District to the safely blue 6th District. Mace comfortably won two more terms, while Trump carried the 1st by a 56-43 margin in 2024. Democrats, though, are hoping that Trump’s declining poll numbers will give them an opening to overcome these tough obstacles. Seven Democrats filed ahead of Monday’s deadline, with three standing out for the attention they’ve earned. Attorney Mac Deford, a Coast Guard veteran who unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination in 2024, and former state party official Mayra Rivera-Vazquez each entered the race last year. They were joined in January by retired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, a victim of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broad purge of top military leaders who launched her campaign with a high-profile endorsement from EMILYs List. Folks sometimes ask us if there’s a way they can support The Downballot without signing up as a paid subscriber. The answer is yes, absolutely! You can make a donation of any size, including a recurring one, on our ActBlue page. It’s incredibly easy—just click below: Election NightAR-SoS, Special ElectionsTuesday’s Republican primary runoff for Arkansas secretary of state is the main contest to watch on a fairly quiet election night. Whoever wins will be favored in the fall in this conservative state. Army veteran Bryan Lee Norris, who has the support of election conspiracy theorists like Mike Lindell, narrowly outpaced state Sen. Kim Hammer 34.3 to 33.5 in the first round of voting on March 3. Because neither candidate earned a majority of the vote, the two will face off again on Tuesday. Hammer is backed by prominent Republicans like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Tom Cotton. Interim Secretary of State Cole Jester, who is the GOP nominee for land commissioner, is also supporting Hammer. (State law prohibited Jester, whom Sanders appointed to fill a vacancy, from running for another term.) Massachusetts, meanwhile, is holding a special election to replace Democratic state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, who died in December. Democrat Dru Tarr, who worked as an aide for Ferrante, is favored to hold Essex County’s 5th District, which Kamala Harris carried 66-32. GovernorsCA-GovDemocratic Rep. Eric Swalwell on Sunday received the endorsement of the California Teachers Association, which Politico’s Melanie Mason describes as “the last major labor prize the gubernatorial candidates had been jockeying for.” As Mason notes, labor organizations have divided their support among the many Democrats running, with at least half a dozen candidates touting backing from different unions. But Swalwell, she points out, “has locked down some of the biggest heavyweights,” including CTA, the SEIU, and the United Food and Commercial Workers. NM-GovAn outside group has launched a commercial attacking former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the frontrunner in the June Democratic primary for governor of New Mexico, for taking a 2014 flight on a plane chartered by Jeffrey Epstein. That trip took place when Haaland was serving as running mate for Gary King, who was waging an ultimately unsuccessful effort to unseat then-Gov. Susana Martínez. Flight logs released in February by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the Epstein files show that King and Haaland flew to Washington, D.C. for a fundraiser, and that the only other passengers listed were campaign staffers. “Jeffrey Epstein is a despicable predator who committed heinous crimes and Deb strongly supports a full investigation into the crimes committed both in New Mexico and abroad,” Haaland’s campaign told the Albuquerque Journal in response. “Deb never had any interaction with him and the way in which the plane was chartered was never communicated to her.” But Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who is Haaland’s sole opponent in the primary, thinks this story could damage the frontrunner. Bregman’s team released a poll last month arguing that, while Haaland held a 46-25 advantage, she was vulnerable to attacks over Epstein. The new ad, which was first reported by Joe Monahan, is now testing out that strategy. There’s no word, though, on how much the organization behind it, Accountable New Mexico, is spending, or who is behind the outfit. HouseMO-04Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced on Monday—the day before Missouri’s candidate filing deadline—that he would not run for Congress after weighing a possible bid, though there’s still considerable uncertainty surrounding which districts the state will use next year. Lucas, a Democrat, floated the idea of challenging Republican Rep. Mark Alford in the 4th District last year after Republicans passed a new map making the Democratic-held 5th District much redder. However, even the revamped 4th would have still been extremely tough for any Democrat. Under the old lines, the district voted for Donald Trump by a giant 71-28 margin; the new iteration would have backed him by a smaller but still intimidating 60-39 spread. Two Democrats who were challenging Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in the primary in the 5th District, though, instead filed to run in the 4th: political organizer Hartzell Gray and Air Force veteran Jordan Herrera. They face several other little-known candidates in the race to take on Alford, but the entire political landscape could still face a reset. That’s because opponents of the new map are seeking to qualify a referendum that would allow voters to overturn it at the ballot box later this year. They’re also arguing that the map should be suspended pending such a vote. A state court issued a ruling late last week rejecting that argument, but organizers have already appealed. ND-ALFormer State Department official Alex Balazs secured the endorsement of the North Dakota Republican Party on Sunday for his primary campaign against freshman Rep. Julie Fedorchak, but the congresswoman probably isn’t too concerned. Balazs prevailed at a party convention that Fedorchak and other prominent GOP elected officials did not attend. While Fedorchak simply said she was focusing on her job, Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring was less diplomatic, saying he was skipping because there was “too much back-biting and infighting” within the party. Angry delegates responded by passing a resolution purporting to prohibit anyone who spurned the convention from running as a Republican. Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who chose to attend a friend’s wedding instead of the GOP gathering, responded by saying the resolution was unenforceable. Armstrong was elected governor in 2024 after spending the previous six years as North Dakota’s sole U.S. House member, and Fedorchak and Balazs both competed in the GOP primary for his seat in Congress. Fedorchak beat another opponent 46-30, while Balazs took a distant fourth place with just 4% of the vote. NE-02Former congressional staffer James Leuschen said Monday that he was exiting the Democratic primary for Nebraska’s open 2nd District, a swing seat that Republican Rep. Don Bacon is not seeking reelection to. Six Democrats remain in the May 12 primary for this Omaha-area constituency. The four main candidates are former Veterans Department official Kishla Askins; state Sen. John Cavanaugh; political strategist Denise Powell; and Douglas County District Court Clerk Crystal Rhoades. The other two names haven’t attracted much attention. The winner will take on Omaha City Councilman Brinker Harding, who has the Republican primary to himself, in a constituency that Kamala Harris carried 52-47. NV-02Both retiring Rep. Mark Amodei and Gov. Joe Lombardo have endorsed former state Sen. James Settelmeyer in the crowded GOP primary to succeed Amodei in Nevada’s conservative 2nd District. Earlier this month, Amodei’s name appeared on an invitation for a pair of fundraisers benefitting Settelmeyer, even though the congressman had told the Nevada Independent’s Mini Racker that he did not plan to get involved in the race to succeed him until after the GOP primary. At the time, Amodei sought to explain away his apparent about-face by telling Racker that “he would be open to doing the same for other candidates on a case-by-case basis.” Presumably, that offer is no longer on the table. SC-05State Sen. Wes Climer was the only Republican who filed to succeed GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, who is giving up South Carolina’s 5th District to run for governor, ahead of Monday’s deadline. Climer should have little trouble in the general election for a constituency that Donald Trump carried 61-38. Poll Pile
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