Sanford
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who became a tabloid sensation after taking secret trips to visit his Argentinian mistress, has lost the support of the NRCC in his comeback bid for a Senate seat. Reuters

If former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is going make a comeback, he'll have to do it without the support of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The NRCC on Wednesday withdrew its financial support from Sanford in his House race a day after his ex-wife, Jenny, confirmed she filed a complaint accusing him of trespassing.

“Mark Sanford has proven he knows what it takes to win elections,” Daniel Scarpinato, national press secretary for the NRCC, said in a statement. “At this time, the NRCC will not be engaged in this special election.”

Sanford is trying to make a political comeback after the 2009 scandal when he admitted to an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman he is now engaged to. He disappeared for days -- claiming he was "hiking the Appalachian Trail" -- before returning and confessing to the affair. The former governor is running in a May 7 special House election against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

A source with knowledge of the campaign told International Business Times that news of the trespassing complaint presents challenges the NRCC wasn’t aware of. These challenges would have made it difficult for Sanford to focus the race on issues like Obamacare, the source said.

A Sanford defeat in the special election in the 1st Congressional District would send comedian Stephen Colbert’s sister to Congress as the first Democrat to win the Charleston-area seat since 1978. The seat is vacant because Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., was appointed to the U.S. Senate to replace Jim DeMint, who quit to head the conservative Heritage Foundation.