As the hotly-contested race for Congress from South Carolina’s 1st District comes down to the wire, Katie Arrington recently learned she won’t have the backing of the fellow Republican she narrowly beat for renomination, Rep. Mark Sanford.
“Part of leadership, at times, means knowing when it’s best to keep quiet,” Sanford told the Charleston “Post and Courier” on October 29, “To me, this is probably one of those times.”
State Rep. Arrington, fresh from unseating six-termer Sanford by about 2,500 votes in the June primary, told Newsmax at the time that he she didn’t expect his blessing in the fall.
“He never called to congratulate me or concede the race,” she said, “I don’t expect to get his endorsement.”
At the time, Arrington was using a wheelchair following a near-fatal car collision shortly after the primary. She was in Washington to meet the President, who happily signed his good wishes on her cast and added “Glad you’re alive.”
Now fully recovered and stumping hard, Arrington makes no bones about her support of Trump (Sanford was a “never-Trumper”). Democratic opponent Joe Cunningham, an attorney and ocean engineer, is running as a centrist who puts “the low country [the local nickname for the Charleston area] above party.” Cunningham has also vowed not to vote for Nancy Pelosi as speaker if Democrats win the House.
Arrington dismisses this, noting that Pelosi “already has the votes in her conference to be speaker” and told us “you can’t be moderate if you’re for killing the unborn.” (Cunningham says he is “pro-choice,” Arrington opposes abortion under any circumstances except the life of the mother).
Although the district has elected a Republican congressman since 1980, there are strong signs the race will be much closer than it has been in memory.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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