SC-1 Poll Fallout: Tom Davis Rising?
Could state senator get the endorsement of both early frontrunners?
By FITSNews
February 7, 2019
The big news in South Carolina politics this week was the release of a new survey of Republican voters in the state’s first congressional district – which is officially the GOP’s top takeover target after it surprisingly fell into Democratic hands last fall.
The survey drew widespread media coverage – due in no small part to the fact it originated from pollster/ political strategist Robert Cahaly of the Atlanta, Georgia-based Trafalgar Group.
Cahaly has been nothing short of an oracle over the last few years – especially when it comes to races in South Carolina.
Anyway, his poll confirmed – not surprisingly – that the two candidates who battled for this nomination last spring continued to draw significant levels of support. Former GOP nominee Katie Arrington, a 47-year-old cybersecurity expert at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), was backed by 25.5 percent of the respondents in the poll while former congressman Mark Sanford – who was vanquished by Arrington in last June’s GOP primary election – drew the support of 23.2 percent of respondents.
As we noted in our coverage, we believe Sanford’s level of GOP support in the first district represents a hard ceiling – especially after the die-hard #NeverTrumper infuriated establishment Republicans by refusing to support Arrington in her 2018 race against Democrat Joe Cunningham.
He is literally a man without a constituency now … at least not a constituency that will get him to a majority of Republican votes in a first district GOP primary.
As for Arrington, her future could wind up being closely tied to her new job in the Pentagon – raising questions as to whether she will take another run at this seat in 2020.
So if Arrington and Sanford both decided not to run … who would they support?
Davis – who finished in third place in Cahaly’s first district poll – is a third-term state senator from Beaufort County and the leading fiscal conservative in the S.C. General Assembly. He is also regarded as the Palmetto State’s most influential libertarian-leaning lawmaker owing to his longtime advocacy on behalf of medical marijuana, among other issues.
Sanford has already made his support for Davis – his former gubernatorial chief of staff – abundantly clear.
When former U.S. congressman Ron Paul opined that having Davis in Washington, D.C. would be a “boost for individual liberty and limited government,” Sanford responded that Davis was “indeed … a rare gem who looks out for the taxpayer.”
Davis also reportedly received indications from Arrington several months ago that were he to seek this seat in 2020, she would not run.
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Originally Posted by dannno
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