Sanford owes party leaders nothing, as they refused to spend money on his campaign in the closing weeks and held him at arm’s length for much of the race.
He’s also a vocal — and stubborn — fiscal conservative, and will be sworn into the House at a time when GOP leaders are battling to control an unruly conference…
“He could be an added voice to the opposition, to those who like to make trouble for the Republican leadership,” GOP strategist Ron Bonjean, a former top House leadership aid, told The Hill. “It’ll definitely be a leadership management issue.”
Sanford made it clear in Tuesday night’s victory speech that he wasn’t returning to Washington to make friends — the same approach he took when he was a thorn in the side of GOP leadership during his first stint in Congress in the 1990s, and when he fought tooth-and-nail with the Republican-controlled statehouse during his governorship.
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