Only One Person Showed Up At Republican Trump Challenger Mark Sanford’s Kickoff Rally

Needless to say, Sanford lost the primaries.

Now, however, Sanford apparently thinks he has a shot at taking Trump's job, running against him.

That doesn't seem likely, though, seeing as only one person - a reporter, no less - showed up to hear Sanford speak at his campaign kickoff rally!

The one reporter that showed up to Sanford's rally was from The Philadephia Inquirer.

Here's what they said about it:

 The bell in the Independence Hall tower rang at 9 a.m., and Mark Sanford took a deep breath. He grabbed a giant check for “one trillion dollars,” stood next to a tiny wooden lectern, and asked me if I was ready for him to kick off a news conference announcing his bid to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary.

     

 It didn’t really feel like a news conference. I was the only reporter there.

 And when it began, the only others around besides his two aides were a family 30 yards away with a selfie stick and a group of students from Paris who wanted to know why he had such a big check. (Answer: It represented the burden of the national debt.)

     

 The former South Carolina congressman and governor — perhaps best known for disappearing from office for six days in 2009 to visit a paramour in Argentina — launched his long-long-long-shot presidential campaign Wednesday in a gloomy Philadelphia. The launch also served to kick off his "Kids, We’re Bankrupt and We Didn’t Even Know It” tour — a 3,500-mile, weeklong road trip he hopes will “spark a needed conversation” within the Republican Party about spending and debt. He was set to make stops later Wednesday in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

 That “conversation” isn’t going to get sparked, though, without some attention. Besides me, news conference attendees included two photographers — including an Inquirer photographer — and a 6ABC cameraman who showed up briefly. (“I’ll talk to about 250,000 people in just a second,” Sanford said to me as the cameraman approached with his tripod.) No other local TV station showed up to the kickoff spot, even though Fox 29′s studio is a block away. CBS3 and NBC10′s studios were within two miles of Sanford’s news conference.

     

 “Nobody knows me in Philadelphia. I get it,” Sanford said. “I think in life we all do what we can do, what’s within our power to have an effect. So we’re just sort of moving along as we go along.”

This bid for president, which has just a couple of volunteers and is being financed through old congressional campaign funds, is a near impossibility. Sanford, who joins two other primary challengers — former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld — won’t even be eligible to run in at least five states that canceled Republican primaries altogether amid Trump’s total takeover of the GOP, including Sanford’s home state of South Carolina.

Breitbart also had the following to say about Sanford's humilating turnout to his rally, if it can even be called that:

Only one person showed up at Mark Sanford’s official campaign launch against President Trump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

Sanford announced in September his intention to launch a Republican primary bid against the president, telling Fox News’s Chris Wallace that we “need to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican”:

Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) announced exclusively on Fox News Sunday that he will challenge President Trump in the Republican primary. #FNS #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/2xwdSGpW0d

— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 8, 2019

Sanford officially launched his campaign in Philadelphia on Wednesday, accompanied by an oversized check for “one trillion dollars” and a single individual (who was not a reporter, an aide, or a family member). The campaign launch doubled as a kickoff of his 3,500-mile tour across 11 states, dubbed “Kids, We’re Bankrupt and We Didn’t Even Know It”:

We began our trip this morning in Philadelphia. Our Founding Fathers designed a 3-legged stool to keep freedom alive –  sustainable spending, separated power & enough civility to keep us talking as Americans. Lose these things & we lose our civilization. https://t.co/eUjLtprvg2

— Mark Sanford (@MarkSanford) October 16, 2019

Anna Orso, who covered Sanford’s launch for the Philadelphia Inquirer, noted that she was the only reporter there.

According to the report:

And when it began, the only others around besides his two aides were a family 30 yards away with a selfie stick and a group of students from Paris who wanted to know why he had such a big check. (Answer: It represented the burden of the national debt.)

..

Besides me, news conference attendees included two photographers — including a Philadelphia Inquirer photographer — and a 6ABC cameraman who showed up briefly. (“I’ll talk to about 250,000 people in just a second,” Sanford said to me as the cameraman approached with his tripod.) No other local TV station showed up to the kickoff spot, even though Fox 29 is studio is a block away. CBS3 and NBC10’s studios were within two miles of Sanford’s news conference.

She said Sanford only spoke with one person who did not happen to be an aide, journalist, or the curious foreign students:

I went to Mark Sanford's presidential campaign kickoff in Philly and only one person besides me and a couple photographers showed up :/ https://t.co/FB24ytpS3W

— Anna Orso (@anna_orso) October 16, 2019

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ONE PERSON SHOWED UP TO MARK SANFORD’S CAMPAIGN KICKOFF HAHAHAHAHA https://t.co/uUAiJIuAB5

— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) October 17, 2019

“Nobody knows me in Philadelphia. I get it,” Sanford said, according to Orso. “I think in life we all do what we can do, what’s within our power to have an effect. So we’re just sort of moving along as we go along.”