In joining forces with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a budget deal that would raise the debt ceiling and boost spending by $340 billion above hard-fought for limits, President Trump not only has obliterated the legacy of the Tea Party, but he has created an opening for Mark Sanford to launch a primary challenge.
As I wrote last week when Sanford first floated the possibility of running for president, though the former South Carolina governor and congressman doesn’t have a realistic chance of beating Trump, he has a much more plausible case than the liberal Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.
Before he became a national figure due to his extramarital exploits on the “Appalachian Trail,” Sanford was known as a tight-fisted limited government conservative, predating the Tea Party. He would have much more credibility to challenge Trump from the right than Weld, and primary challenges have typically come from ideological wings. And Sanford made clear in a pseudo-announcement video that were he to run, his focus would be on the unsustainable federal debt.
Trump remains exceedingly popular among conservatives, and on many issues (such as taxes and judges), it would be difficult to attack him from a conservative perspective.
But when it comes to the federal debt, in a year when the deficit is expected to exceed $1 trillion, Trump is vulnerable to attack. It’s true that since Barack Obama left office, the importance of the debt as an issue has receded among Republican voters — but there are still a bloc of people who consider it a significant problem. A Pew Research Center survey taken earlier this year found that 54% of Republicans/Republican leaners say reducing the deficit should be a priority for the president and Congress. While well down from its Obama-era peak of 82%, it still represents a solid majority.
It would be charitable to describe any primary challenge to Trump as even a long-shot. But to the extent that there is a case for a primary challenge, it should be about something other than mere anti-Trumpism.
As Trump builds on years of fiscal neglect with a costly alliance with Pelosi, he has created that opportunity for Sanford to launch a primary challenge around an important issue and fill a missing niche within a party that has come to embrace profligacy.
