Former state governor is selected as Republican candidate to run for 1st District seat in House of Representatives

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has cleared another hurdle in his bid for a political comeback, winning the Republican nomination for a vacant seat in the House of Representatives.

Sanford's political career was derailed four years ago when he disappeared from the state and later admitted to an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman to whom he is now engaged.

With 96% of precincts reporting, Sanford had about 57% of the primary vote to 43% for Curtis Bostic, a former Charleston county council member. The candidates were vying on Tuesday in a Republican runoff in the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina, which covers the south coast.

Sanford will face the Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, in a special election in May. She is the sister of the TV political satirist Stephen Colbert.

Eugene Platt is on the ballot for the Green party.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sanford said results from the primary would give a good indication whether voters have moved past his personal indiscretions. "I think tonight's verdict will say a lot as to where people are or are not on that," Sanford said after voting in his downtown Charleston precinct. "I suppose at some level I will never completely move beyond that."

Two weeks ago, Sanford led a 16-candidate field in a Republican primary for his old congressional seat. This is Sanford's first campaign since he revealed the affair.

Bostic collected only about 13% of the vote in the primary voting two weeks ago, narrowly defeating state senator Larry Grooms for second place.

The House seat was held by Republican Tim Scott until he was appointed to fill the state's US Senate seat, left vacant by the resignation of Jim DeMint, who was named president of the Heritage Foundation, Washington's best-known conservative thinktank.