South Carolina has seen some incredible political twists in recent years. Consider the former US Congressman Mark Sanford, who rehabilitated after an infamous walk along the Appalachian Trial (through Argentina) imploded his once promising national aspirations.
Since then, Sanford’s career has “reimplanted”, but not before he won the US House of Representatives election in 2013 … and re-election in 2014 and 2016.
Sanford’s return gave him another chance at relevance, but he torpedoed her against his party’s base during the presidency of Donald Trump. As a result, Sanford is no longer a congressman speaking from a podium, but a former congressman speaking in front of … whatever it is.
But when it comes to recovery, Sanford’s recovery in 2013 was pretty impressive …
Could former vice governor of SC Ken Ard be in line for a similar revival?
Ard, readers will remember, served fourteen months as deputy governor in 2011 (and early 2012) before resigning due to a campaign finance scandal. This medium was extremely critical of Ard at the time, however, compared to some of the scandals that followed (ProbeGate and NukeGate, for example) his behavior was comparatively tame.
What did he do? Basically, Ard – a successful businessman – wanted to project the appearance of ample financial support for his 2010 campaign. Instead of “self-financing” his candidacy, he wanted to give the impression that several citizens supported him monetarily.
So … he basically paid them to contribute, part of an illicit “cash for contributions” scheme.
Illegal? Yes. Dishonest? Absolutely.
But at the end of the day, Ard didn’t steal taxpayers or even abuse his campaign funds – he just managed way very creative in channeling your own money into your application.
And he paid for it with his work …
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“My mistakes are well documented, I took responsibility for them and paid a heavy price for them,” said Ard three years ago. “I dusted it off and moved on.”
Ard didn’t just “change”, he became one of the most influential voices in the state’s Pee Dee region – hosting a very popular morning show at Live 95 in Florence, SC
Why is Ard’s show so popular? Because the 57-year-old man is a natural talent in the air, that’s why … mixing effortlessly the good old boy’s bravado with conservative paleo populism. Don’t be fooled by Pamplico’s accent … Ard is a speaker as talented as you will hear (either in his air monologues or in the comments he posts on his social media accounts).
In the past few weeks, this medium has heard Ard’s name mentioned with increasing frequency in connection with South Carolina’s seventh congressional district – a chair that is currently represented by Tom Rice. In the aftermath of Rice’s surprise vote for Trump’s impeachment, the Republican Party primaries for this seat are expected to open. Several candidates – including two acting state legislators – have already formed exploratory committees in anticipation of Rice’s challenge in the Republican Party primary elections in June 2022 (which will happen just sixteen months, incidentally).
In addition, a former candidate for this seat – state deputy Jay Jordan – was mentioned as a possible candidate, as was Ard’s predecessor as deputy governor, André Bauer, which almost conquered the district in 2012.
Could Ard potentially jump the field, however?
Yea …
Obviously, the seventh district favors candidates from Horry County – a Republican stronghold along Palmetto’s Grand Strand. In 2020, 124,568 of rice 224,993 total votes (or 55.4 percent of the ballots he received) came from Horry County. About that, 178,945 Outside of 364,091 total votes cast in the district – or 49.1 percent of all ballots – came from Horry County.
This is a great field advantage at home for a coastal candidate and a major deterrent for potential “inland” candidates like Ard.
Still, Horry County is home to a large, well-organized faction of Trump voters (as Rice is finding out the hard way) – and we can’t think of a candidate who is better positioned to exploit that populist streak than Ard. Or any candidate who was more adept at exploring that vein.
Is the former statewide elected official interested in the position? It is not clear … but it is clear to us that he would be a force to be reckoned with if he entered the race.
The seventh district of South Carolina was created in 1803 and eliminated in 1853. It was reinstated in 1883 and eliminated again in 1933. More recently, it was reinstated in 2013 after the 2010 Census results showed that the population of South Carolina was growing in more than 18 percent over the previous decade. Rice emerged victorious over Bauer in a direct confrontation for the Republican seat, after the two ended up at the top of a field of nine candidates in June 2012. The 63-year-old lawyer has not been credibly challenged since.
-FITSNews
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