Mark Sanford won back his old seat in the U.S. House, edging Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the older sister of Stephen Colbert, in a South Carolina special election.
The state’s former two-term Republican governor overcame a series of missteps to earn about 54 percent of the vote in the conservative-leaning district.
Elizabeth Colbert Busch would have been the first Democrat to represent South Carolina’s 1st congressional district in 30 years, but came up just short.
Sanford, 53, famously resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association back in 2009 after being caught in an elaborate cheating scandal.
His made-up alibi of hiking on the Appalachian Trail while he was really visiting mistress Maria Belen Chapur in Argentina made him a talk show punchline.
Nevertheless, he completed his second term as governor, and remains undefeated in politics, winning three congressional and two gubernatorial races.
Before being elected governor, he was a member of U.S. Congress, holding the seat he just won back after Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate.
Mark Sanford and Chapur are also engaged; former wife Jenny Sanford divorced him in the aftermath of the scandal. They have four sons together.
Stephen Colbert hit the campaign trail for his sis (in real life, not as his show persona) hosting fundraisers in their hometown of Charleston, NYC and DC.