WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mark Sanford, a Republican former U.S. congressman from South Carolina, said on Tuesday he is considering mounting a primary challenge to President Donald Trump.
Sanford, 59, a longtime Trump critic who lost his seat in the House of Representatives last year after he was challenged by a Trump supporter in the Republican primary, will decide in the next month whether to make a long-shot bid against Trump for the 2020 presidential nomination, he told the Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina.
He said he would run against Trump because of concerns about the federal debt and government spending.
Sanford, who is also a former South Carolina governor, could not be reached immediately by Reuters for comment.
To date, William Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, has been the only Republican to attempt to unseat Trump, who has consolidated his grip on the party’s national and state machinery.
Trump's campaign raised $135 million since he filed for re-election on the day he took office, and the Republican National Committee and other committees formed by Trump are also raising money for his reelection.
Twenty-five Democrats are seeking that party’s nomination ahead of the general election in November 2020. [L2N249152]