Feel the Chern: Bernie Sanders supporter Dimitri Cherny challenges Mark Sanford in GOP primary
The Republican race for U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford's seat in Congress got a juggle Friday when a liberal Democrat jumped in against him.
Dimitri Cherny, a left-leaning backer of Bernie Sanders for president (and who has a Sanders tattoo on his forearm), changed his party allegiance and filed for the 1st Congressional District Republican primary.
"Cherny gets radical," his press announcement said.
"Third-time congressional candidate and Bernie supporter Dimitri Cherny is confirming his radical reputation by entering the open primary for the 1st Congressional District seat of South Carolina on the Republican ballot to face incumbent Mark Sanford," he said.
His campaign phone message says he's running to fix "capitalism and democracy to work for all of us."
Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/feel-the-chern-bernie-sanders-supporter-dimitri-cherny-challenges-mark/article_78c02fb6-3431-11e8-808c-53d1fee40893.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
"likely Republican." Sanford is sitting on $1.5 million.
Our Democratic candidate is a newcomer, Joe Cunningham, a construction law attorney.
GOP primary challenger Katie Arrington, a state representative from Summerville, raised $154,000 total, but $110,000 of that came from personal money.
With five months before the June 12 primary, she had more than $236,000 in the bank.
Democrat Joe Cunningham raised $115,000 and had almost $100,000 in his campaign account by the end of the year.
https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/one-s-c-democrat-tops-gop-congressional-incumbent-in-fundraising/article_91f1a4a6-0704-11e8-8b88-933d48bb9f82.html
As for this guy, Cherny was the Democratic candidate in 2016 and got 36%. That's probably the baseline of people who wouldn't vote Republican. Wonder how a more mainstream candidate, someone who wasn't searching for a "planet B" to move to once we trash this one, would have done.
I couldn't find an analysis of how this might affect our candidates' chances. Cherny's now badmouthing both parties and describing himself as in the "purple middle" and his website shows a big "America" tattoo rather than the other. 
More importantly, I missed one of our Democratic Party candidates before, Toby Smith, a nice-spoken black woman who ran for mayor before and sounds solidly for liberal Democratic values and goals.
A new, local Post and Courier article suggests this safe-red seat might just be more vulnerable than thought.
The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling from March 1 to 4 with 788 voters in the 1st Congressional District, puts Sanford's approval rating at 44 percent, with 40 percent disapproving of the Charleston Republican's handling of the job. The survey also has President Donald Trump's approval rating slightly underwater in the district, with 46 percent backing Trump to 47 percent disapproval.
A Democratic polling firm based in Raleigh, Public Policy Polling has a reputation of left-leaning results, although the company's average statistical bias appears to have evened out, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight. In this poll, 49 percent of respondents said they voted for Trump to 38 percent for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, which tracks roughly similar to the actual results of Trump's 53 to Clinton's 41.
Cunningham said the result shows that it is possible to flip the district blue for the first time since it went red in 1980.
https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/lowcountry-voters-looking-for-someone-new-in-congress-democratic-poll/article_634dc9f6-338f-11e8-bd1e-87cd2ce0d1d7.html
Democrats in the Charleston-centered district will still have a choice between Joe Cunningham and Toby Smith, both of Charleston. Both parties' primaries will be on June 12.
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article207446619.html
But be assured, the big "American" down his upper arm (not America) is from his current Cherny for Congress website, not The Onion.
in addition to his tax returns.
