With U.S. elections approaching in 2020, the trade war, national security threats, and Trump’s incendiary rhetoric continue to dominate coverage. In the era of “post-truth” and “fake news,” Republicans and Democrats can’t seem to bring moderation – and nuance – to the national debate.  Former Republican congressman Mark Sanford, however, will be one of the few members in his party to campaign against the president on an issue that is likely to be swallowed by the Trumpian vortex – fiscal responsibility.

"I think we need to have a conversation about what it means to be a Republican. I think as a Republican party, we have lost our way,” Sanford said Sunday on Fox News in his official announcement to run. He told media that he would consider running back in July, but notes that the main reason he's challenging Trump in the Republican primary is to get Americans to take the national debt of 22 trillion U.S. dollars seriously. 

Another shot in politics

There aren’t many second chances in politics, but Sanford got one, even after his extramarital affair became national news in 2009 during his time as South Carolina’s governor. He was able to win a congressional seat in 2013, a post that he held before becoming governor. Sanford lost the position, however, to the far-right Katie Arrington in a 2018 reelection. The outcome was largely attributed to Sanford’s loss of Trump’s support, who had tweeted about how the congressman at the time was unhelpful in his campaign to “Make America Great Again.”

The Republican challenger is also advocating for a return to the “traditional” Republican party, one willing to reach across the aisle and not simply supporting whoever can score them political points. In a podcast interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, Sanford noted that he disagreed with Trump on the notion of truth, emphasizing “truth matters.” In the current political climate, he thinks that the U.S. is “playing with fire as a society” and that the country was founded on a “nation of laws, not men,” as the former congressman criticized Trump’s cult-of-personality politics.

Bringing ‘passion’ to debt

Sanford told Vox that he wanted the Republican party to refocus on the U.S.’ fiscal problems, and get people more “excited about debt, deficit and government spending."

The country’s deficit is ballooning, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projecting the deficit will exceed one trillion U.S. dollars this year. The CBO also puts the average deficit at about 1.2 trillion dollars each year from 2020 to 2029, well above the average in the past 50 years.

The national debt – the money that the government has borrowed to cover the deficit – is about 22 trillion dollars. For comparison, the U.S. GDP for 2018 was below 21 trillion dollars. The CBO estimates that the debt will rise to 33 trillion dollars in 2028, which will approach the size of the nation’s GDP then.

The Republican primary next year will see more moderate challengers like Sanford and former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld trying to bring civil discourse and the readiness to negotiate across party lines back to the GOP. But Trump still enjoys great popularity among Republicans, polling in the high 80s. In this drive to “correct” Trump’s extreme rhetoric and the party’s deafening silence, the contenders will have to navigate the swarm of vitriol and bombast in the circus of American politics.

(Cover graphic by Li Jingjie)