Republican presidential candidate, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford speaks on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. Sanford, the previous South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, goes to work for a lobbying agency. Shumaker Advisors introduced Tuesday, March 30, 2021, that Sanford can be becoming a member of the agency, working from Charleston. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Mark Sanford, the previous South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, goes to work for a lobbying agency.
Shumaker Advisors introduced Tuesday that Sanford can be becoming a member of the agency as an govt vice chairman and principal. The federal government relations arm of a legislation agency based in 1925, Shumaker Advisors operates seven workplaces in Ohio, Florida, Michigan and the Carolinas, based on its web site.
“Mark’s information of policymaking at each the state and federal degree is unmatched. He has a command of the problems, the method, and the politics, and our purchasers can be nicely served by his management,” mentioned Shumaker Advisors Florida govt vice chairman David Jolly, a former congressman whose time within the Home overlapped with Sanford’s second congressional profession.
It wasn’t instantly clear if Sanford, technically an advisor on the agency, would register as a lobbyist.
“I’ve been honored to serve the residents of South Carolina and of the USA and stay up for this new chapter,” Sanford mentioned. “I’ve at all times tried not solely to make authorities smaller, however to nicely perceive its particulars, and on this gentle I stay up for becoming a member of the workforce of excellent professionals at Shumaker.”
Sanford, 60, has been working to discover a foothold since finish of the latest iteration of his political profession. Successful three phrases within the U.S. Home within the Nineties, Sanford then was elected twice as governor earlier than an extramarital affair marred the tip of his second time period.
However Sanford’s secret 2009 rendezvous to Argentina to go to his mistress whereas his in-the-dark gubernatorial employees informed reporters he was mountaineering the Appalachian Path, nonetheless, didn’t finish his capacity to win elections. After a short hiatus and a divorce, he returned to politics, successful a particular election to his previous U.S. Home seat in 2013 and holding on twice extra earlier than his criticism of Donald Trump Trump led to a 2018 main loss.
The following yr, Sanford mounted a short-lived problem to Trump himself, centering what he characterised as a “lengthy shot” effort round warnings concerning the nationwide debt. Some, together with Sanford’s former gubernatorial staffers, initially questioned whether or not the trouble was a critical one, positing that it could be an effort to remain related after the 2018 defeat.
Sanford’s residence state would in the end decide to not maintain a 2020 GOP presidential main, clearing the way in which for Trump’s nomination in South Carolina.
Sanford in the end dropped his presidential pursuit on the eve of televised hearings within the U.S. Home for Trump’s first impeachment trial, saying the difficulty had made it tough for his marketing campaign to achieve traction.
“You’ve received to be a realist,” Sanford mentioned in November 2019 outdoors the New Hampshire statehouse. “What I didn’t anticipate is an impeachment.”
In his new position with Shumaker, Sanford can be primarily based in Charleston, based on data obtained by The Related Press.
“I believe it’s a fantastic platform to use the 25 years of ‘college of onerous knocks’ on this planet of politics, and I stay up for it,” Sanford mentioned.
