Sanford asked ex-wife to run campaign

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) asked Jenny Sanford, his ex-wife, to run his campaign for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District.

According to New York magazine, Sanford met with his former wife in December to see if she had planned to run for the congressional seat. If Jenny Sanford did not plan to run for the seat, the former governor wanted to know if she would be willing to run his congressional campaign.

Jenny Sanford had run Sanford's successful congressional campaign in 1994.

"Since you're not running, I want to know if you'll run my campaign," Sanford said, according to the magazine. "We could put the team back together."

The former governor's wife declined. 

Sanford previously told The Hill that he checked with Jenny Sanford before deciding to run. He said that it would be a mistake for both himself and his ex-wife to get into the race. 

“I went out to the beach house on Sullivan’s Island; we visited on the front porch,” Sanford said.

“I told her if she had an interest in doing this, that I’m out, because there’d be nothing crazier than a husband and a wife running against each other. It'd be a circus."

Sanford and his wife divorced after news surfaced that he had had been having an affair with an Argentine woman in 2009. In January, the former South Carolina governor announced that he would run for for now-Sen. Tim Scott's (R) congressional seat. 

In his first campaign ad in the special election, Sanford addressed the affair. 

"For years, while many have talked, I’ve fought to do something about it. I’ve cut spending, reduced debt and made government more accountable," Sanford says in the ad. "More recently, I’ve experienced how none of us goes through life without mistakes, but in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it."

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