A weary Mark Sanford joined the Morning Joe panel on the morning of the South Carolina special election to make one last appeal to voters, particularly women who he has struggled to appeal to in the race.
“It’s been well-chronicled, my deficiencies as a candidate and as a human,” Sanford said. “It’s also been well-chronicled, my record of watching out for the taxpayer, whether it’s their purse or wallet.”
The former South Carolina governor closed a nine-point gap in the polls over the last two weeks against opponent Elizabeth Colbert Busch, all while dealing with a messy divorce (he’s due in court on Thursday over trespassing charges against his ex-wife, Jenny Sanford) and a scandalous political past (while on the job as governor, Sanford infamously disappeared to South America to visit a mistress.)
Polls released on Monday put the two opponents in a dead heat.
How’s he feeling today?
“Worn out. It’s been a long five months,” he admitted. "You spend months of your life rather intensely talking about ideas you believe in, talking about themes that you think are important to the direction of the country and you get ultimately to the day of judgment.”
Sanford said the debate against Colbert Busch helped him in the polls, because they began “finally talking issues” like Obamacare, something Sanford said he would pull funding from, if there was ever an opportunity.
He also said he would have voted against the recent bipartisan Senate background checks bill and the immigration bill that Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is currently trying to sell.