Mark Sanford: Trump challenger drops out of presidential race

The South Carolina Republican is ending his primary challenge against the president as impeachment hearings begin

Mark Sanford has ended his 2020 primary challenge against Donald Trump. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Mark Sanford, among a handful of Republicans mounting long-shot primary challenges against Donald Trump, has dropped out of the race, citing the president's impeachment proceedings as an impasse for a campaign focused on addressing the national debt.

Mr Sanford told the Associated Press that Republicans don't have the "appetite for a nuanced conversation" as Congress prepares for the first week of televised impeachment proceedings against the president.

"Impeachment has made our goal of making the debt, deficit and spending issue a part of this presidential debate impossible right now", Mr Sanford said in a statement. "But with impeachment, wagons are circled, tribes and allegiances are declared and it's all about red team vs. blue team as impeachment literally pulls all the oxygen from the room that could be used to discuss a host of other issues. Unfortunately no message of substance can be aired and debated in this environment within Republican circles."

Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld and former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh are still planning primary challenges against the president.

Mr Sanford, a former governor and congressman from South Carolina, established a campaign around his legacy as a "budget hawk" in his home state, where he served two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011.

Mr Sanford believes Mr Trump is a diversion from "what it once meant to be Republican" and has used the office to "undermine institutions we hold dear".

"While all eyes are on the president, and the media and his opponents are seemingly possessed in giving him focus and attention, he can’t kill us", Mr Sanford said. "But that which we are ignoring, the debt, actually could. So I will say it one more time, I beg of you to find ways to awaken friends and foes alike to the fact that we are missing the real issue of our time."

Meanwhile, Republican parties in several states, including South Carolina, have cancelled their primary challenges, clearing a path for Mr Trump to remain the GOP's 2020 nominee despite inter-party debate over the fate of the president and whether he's "fit" to serve.

"He's utterly unfit", Mr Walsh told The Independent. "And I will continue to make that case, most Republicans agree with me, and I intend to beat Trump.”