Four days before former Republican Gov. Mark Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch face off in a race to become the next U.S. representative from South Carolina’s First District, state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian promised to send Sanford “back to the plantation.”
Sanford and Colbert Busch are in a tight race. The special election is on Tuesday.
Friday evening at a major fundraiser for the party at which Vice President Joe Biden was the featured speaker, Harpootlian touted Colbert Busch’s candidacy, and promised not to send Sanford — who served in Congress from 1995 to 2001 — back to Capitol Hill.
“We’re not the fools you think we are,” Harpootlian said, “and we’re gonna send Mark Sanford back to the plantation, or Argentina or wherever.”
Shortly thereafter, Harpootlian said he hoped Vincent Sheheen, a Democrat who is challenging Gov. Nikki Haley in 2014, and who narrowly lost to her in 2010, would send his political opponent, “back to wherever the hell she came from.”
South Carolina is bustling was 2016 activity Friday, with Biden speaking at the Democratic dinner, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz headlining the South Carolina Republican Party Silver Elephant Dinner.
*This story previously misattributed the “back to wherever the hell she came from” quote to Sheheen. It has been updated to reflect that Harpootlian was the speaker, not Sheheen.