Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford today released the first ad of his congressional campaign, in which he tacitly acknowledges the extramarital affair that marred his tenure as governor and asks for a second chance.
“I have experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes,” Sanford says in the ad. “But in their wake, we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it. In that light, I humbly step forward and ask for your help in changing Washington.”
Sanford is a former congressman and is running for his old seat in South Carolina’s first district. In 2009, he admitted to an affair with a Argentine woman, Maria Belen Chapur — to whom he is now engaged — after disappearing mysteriously over Father’s Day weekend.