Tredje republikan tänker utmana Trump inför valet

Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford, Jr., född 28 maj 1960 i Fort Lauderdale, Florida, är en amerikansk republikansk politiker. Han har varit ledamot av USA:s representanthus 1995–2001 och på nytt sedan 2013. Han var South Carolinas guvernör 2003–2011. Han avlade sin grundexamen vid Furman University och MBA vid University of Virginia. Han flyttade till Sullivan's Island, South Carolina i början av 1990-talet med hustrun Jenny och fyra söner: Marshall, Landon, Bolton och Blake. Sanford efterträdde 1995 Arthur Ravenel som kongressledamot och efterträddes 2001 av Henry E. Brown. Han ställde inte upp för omval 2000 efter att ha lovat att bara sitta under tre mandatperioder 1994. Som guvernör drabbades han av en otrohetsaffär. Senare genomgick han och hustrun Jenny en skilsmässa. I fyllnadsvalet 2013 gjorde han comeback som kongressledamot efter seger mot demokraten Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

The 2020 Republican Party presidential primaries and caucuses will be a series of elections taking place in many U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. These events will elect most of the 2,550 delegates to send to the Republican National Convention. Delegates to the national convention may otherwise be elected by the respective state party organizations. The delegates to the national convention will vote, by ballot, to select the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2020 election, where the majority will be bound by the results of their respective state contests on the first ballot. The delegates also approve the party platform and vice-presidential nominee. President Donald Trump informally launched his bid for re-election on February 18, 2017. He was followed by former governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld, who announced his campaign on April 15, 2019, and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh, who declared his candidacy on August 25, 2019. Former governor of South Carolina and U.S. representative Mark Sanford launched the third primary challenge on September 8, 2019. In February 2019, the Republican national committee voted to provisionally endorse the incumbent president, Donald Trump. The state committees of Kansas, South Carolina and Nevada decided in early September 2019 to cancel their primaries and caucuses.