Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), a U.S. House candidate in the state, courted his ex-wife, Jenny Sanford, to run his congressional campaign, New York magazine reported Sunday.
There was speculation earlier this year that Jenny Sanford might run in the House race herself, potentially pitting her against the man whose infidelity brought her former marriage into national focus in 2009. It was then that Mark Sanford, then acting as governor of South Carolina, vanished from the state before it was discovered that he was visiting his mistress in Argentina. He and Jenny Sanford divorced about a year later, and Mark Sanford is now engaged to the Argentinian woman, Maria Belen Chapur.
But according to the profile in New York magazine, Mark Sanford still wanted his ex-wife to play a prominent role in his new campaign bid.
According to Jenny, she had already told Mark she would be taking a pass on the race the day before, at the funeral of a mutual friend. So when Mark came to visit her, he arrived with a proposal. “Since you’re not running, I want to know if you’ll run my campaign,” he said. “We could put the team back together.”
Jenny told him, in so many words, that wasn’t going to happen. Mark made one last appeal.
“I could pay you this time,” he said.
