Jack Hunter of The American Conservative writes that Nancy Mace has a unique opportunity to take Sanford’s old seat. He writes (abridged):
South Carolina State Representative Nancy Mace is currently running against Cunningham. Mace is a former Sanford supporter who also worked for Trump’s presidential campaign. Before stumping for Trump, she backed Rand Paul for president early in 2016 and also supported his father Ron Paul’s White House bid in 2012.
She is one of four Republicans to have entered the race to challenge Cunningham, and is the current frontrunner by a significant margin. On October 14, Charleston’s Post & Courier reported that Mace had outpaced her opponents significantly in fundraising, raising over a half million since her June launch (the second highest Republican fundraiser only brought in $90,000 over the same period). An October poll conducted by the Columbia-based consulting firm First Tuesday Strategies put Mace at 19 percent and the other three GOP competitors at about 3 percent each.
Though many Republican voters remain undecided—60 percent of them, according to the poll—it’s not surprising that Mace so far has the most appeal.