Former South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford, who is also a former member of Congress, announced on September 08 that he will launch a primary challenge to President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. He is the third Republican to challenge Trump for the nomination.

“I'm here to tell you now that I am going to get in. I think we need to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican. As a Republican Party, we have lost our way. We have got to have a national conversation and a Republican conversation on where are we going on debt and deficit.”

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Worried about govt's debt: Sanford

The 59-year-old Congressman said that he was worried about the government's debt and deficit spending. When asked whether he had a chance to defeat President Trump in 2020, he said: “You never know.” Saford said that it is important to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican. He added that as a Republican Party, the leaders have lost their way. Sanford has served as South Carolina's first Congressional District from 1995-2001 and again in 2013-2019. He also served as the state's governor from 2003-2011. Back then, the US President had accused Sanford of having an extramarital affair that had put his second term under a cloud. Stanford also lost the 2018 re-election bid to his congressional seat after the US President started to endorse South Carolina state Representative Katie Arrington. 

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Candidates for 2020 Republican challenge

Sanford has criticized President Trump over many issues during the 2016 presidential pools but ultimately backed him. Along with Sanford, the former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld who ran for vice president in 2012 on the Libertarian Party ticket announced his challenge to the US President in the Republican nomination. The former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, a one-term lawmaker turned talk radio provocateur, also challenged President Trump last month. 

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(Inputs from ANI)