Late Tuesday evening, Mark Sanford won the GOP primary runoff to become the Republican Party's official congressional nominee South Carolina's First District. Sanford soundly defeated his opponent, Curtis Bostic, reclaiming the GOP nomination for the House seat he held for three terms prior to being elected governor of South Carolina in 2002.
All of this would have been difficult to imagine in 2009, when the then-governor was caught in a bizarre and excellent scandal. In case you don't remember: Sanford disappeared from office, claiming to be hiking the Appalachian Trail when, in fact, he was in Buenos Aires cheating on his wife with an Argentine reporter. Flash forward to 2013: Sanford is divorced from his wife (though he asked her to manage his campaign), engaged to the Argentine reporter, and, most amazingly, back in the political spotlight with a realistic chance to be reelected to Congress. Quite the comeback, Mark.
And if the scandal and redemption story weren't enough to attract significant press attention, there's this: Sanford's opponent in the May 7 special election will be Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert.
[Image via Mark Sanford]