Bruce Smith / AP

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford answers questions from reporters after voting in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

Scandal-tarred former governor Mark Sanford moved one step closer to political redemption on Tuesday, winning a special Republican primary runoff and setting the stage for a showdown with Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch for a seat in Congress to represent South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. 

Fueled by his high name recognition and fund raising advantage, Sanford defeated former Charleston County Council member Curtis Bostic to become the Republican nominee for the hotly contested open seat, the Associated Press declared.

"While God may be a God of second chances, in times voters are a little bit less forgiving, and in that regard it has been an amazing journey," Sanford told supporters gathered at a victory party in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

On March 19, Sanford earned 37 percent of the vote to beat out 15 other candidates in the Republican primary. Because he failed to break the 50 percent threshold, he faced a runoff with Bostic, the second-place finisher.

Attention now turns to the high-profile contest between Sanford — the former governor of the state who became a national punchline after attempting to sneak off to Argentina to visit his mistress — and Colbert Busch, a former businesswoman and sister of satirist Stephen Colbert.

Sanford represented the coastal district from 1995 to 2001 before occupying the governor's mansion in Columbia. The seat opened in December after Gov. Nikki Haley appointed congressman Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate, to fill the seat left vacated by Jim DeMint who abruptly jumped ship to head a conservative think tank.

Despite Sanford's tumultuous tenure as governor, he is still largely seen as the early front runner in the traditionally conservative district.

And while Republicans voting in the primary seemed to have forgiven Sanford, Colbert Busch supporters argue the Democrat can make inroads with voters still uneasy about the Republican's past, especially women.

Bostic attempted to make Sanford's transgressions an issue during the runoff campaign, calling his rival "a compromised candidate" during their only debate.

"Democrats are excited at the possibility of taking this seat back," he said.

Sanford kicked off his campaign by acknowledging his past mistakes and apologizing for them. “If we live long enough, we’re going to fail at something and I absolutely failed in my personal life and in my marriage, but one place I didn’t ever fail was with the taxpayers,” he said on the TODAY show in February.

But the former governor quickly tried to switch the focus of his message to his record as a fiscal conservative, a song that plays well in the district vacated by Scott, a darling among the tea party.

Yet, already showing an impressive fund-raising prowess and with help from her famous brother, Colbert Busch may be able to mount a tougher challenge than most Democrats have been able to in South Carolina's low country. Her campaign released a poll last week showing her leading Sanford, and she has had some success courting Republican donors in the red district.

The general election will be held May 7.

Moments after the Associated Press declared Sanford the winner, Colbert Busch released a statement congratulating her opponent, saying she looked forward to a "vigorous campaign."

Also included was a statement from the campaign's spokesperson James Smith, who said Sanford "simply has the wrong values for our community."

Bruce Smith / AP

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford speaks with reporters on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at a polling place in Charleston, S.C.

A disgraced ex-governor and the sister of a popular comedian came out victorious on Tuesday in South Carolina's special congressional primary, possibly setting the stage for an uncommonly tight race for what is normally a Republican safe seat.

Republicans in South Carolina's 1st congressional district showed forgiveness by supporting Mark Sanford after a campaign focused as much on the former governor's personal transgressions as his record. Sanford came out on top of the crowded 16-candidate Republican primary, according to the Associated Press.

Sanford, who gained more than 35 percent of the vote, will face a runoff election on April 2 against the second place finisher. The race for the Republican runner-up was much closer and votes were still being tallied late into the night.

Also victorious on Tuesday was Elizabeth Colbert Busch — the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert — who easily won the Democratic primary and will face off against the winner of the Republican run-off election in May.

The seat opened in December when then-Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jim DeMint.

Bruce Smith / AP

Elizabeth Colbert Bush, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, shares a laugh with reporters after voting in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.

Sanford's bizarre disappearance from the governor's mansion in 2009 became fodder for comedians and political onlookers alike after it was revealed he lied about hiking in the Appalachian Trail in order to visit his mistress in Argentina. He served out his term, but faced ethics fines, a divorce from his wife of 21 years, and what many thought was the end of a promising political career.

He has spent the years since asking for forgiveness and acknowledging his mistakes, but he attempted to keep the focus of his campaign on his record as a conservative spender in as a governor and in Congress. 

“If we live long enough, we’re going to fail at something and I absolutely failed in my personal life and in my marriage, but one place I didn’t ever fail was with the taxpayers,” he said on the Today show last month.

Still, Republican rivals competing in the primary criticized Sanford for using his candidacy as much as a PR tour as a bid for Congress.

“His personal tour of redemption now is a disservice to the people of the Lowcountry who are looking for the next leader to represent them in Congress,” Mike Biundo, an adviser to rival candidate Andy Patrick, said in a statement.

Throughout the campaign the well-funded Sanford was seen as the GOP front runner to reach the runoff.  According to the non-profit Sunlight foundation, the former governor raised more than $300,000 with contributions from well-known Republican financiers David Koch and Foster Friess, the billionaire who largely bankrolled Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. 

Sanford also enjoys a name recognition level much higher than his rivals, fueled both by his tumultuous tenure as governor and the fact he served as the representative from South Carolina's 1st district from 1995 to 2001.

Sanford's front-runner status made the primary largely a race for second place, where Teddy Turner, son of media-mogul Ted Turner,  locked in a television ad war with Chip Limehouse. Turner painted Limehouse, a member of South Carolina's house of representatives, as a career politician. Limehouse accuses Turner of duping business investors out of millions of dollars.

Rivaling Sanford's funding on the Democratic side is Colbert Busch, whose famous brother has campaigned for her and talked about her on his satirical Comedy Central talk show.

Colbert Busch supporters argue their candidate can make inroads amongst those still unforgiving of Sanford's actions.

"I want to say to the voters of the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina, Democrats, Independents and Republicans, I have been listening and I hear you. I understand your frustrations and your aspirations. I will never stop listening to you-and I am ready to be your voice in Washington," Colbert Busch said in a statement released after her win.

Former Gov. Mark Sanford is up with his first TV ad in his bid for South Carolina's 1st congressional district, appealing to voters and a "God of second chances."

"I've experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. But in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it," Sanford says in the ad.

It's all part of a campaign to rehabilitate his political career after it seemed to end in scandal. When he was governor, Sanford disappeared for days, with staff first saying he was hiking the Appalachian Trail before Sanford himself acknowledged he had in fact gone to Argentina to visit his mistress.

Sanford was married at the time -- and he used taxpayer money to pay for another trip to South America when he visited his lover. He eventually reimbursed the state for the costs.

Sanford is now engaged to the Argentine woman, Maria Belen Chapur. 

Sanford is one of 16 Republicans running in the primary to replace now-Sen. Tim Scott. His ex-wife, Jenny Sanford, considered a bid for the seat before deciding not to run.

The district, in South Carolina's Lowcountry, is strongly Republican, and the winner of the GOP primary is likely to end up in Congress.

Still, the race is drawing attention from both sides of the aisle: Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, is running for the seat as a Democrat.

Updated 12:27 a.m. - South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) appointed Rep. Tim Scott on Monday to fill Jim DeMint's Senate seat at a press conference in the Palmetto State.

Flanked by the other Republican members of the state's congressional delegation, Haley named Scott as the state's next senator to follow DeMint when he resigns next month to take over the top position at the Heritage Foundation.

Scott said he was thankful for the opportunity, and opened his remarks with a moment of silence for the victims of the Newtown, Conn. shooting last week. And he sounded a decidedly conservative tone. 

"We have a spending problem, ladies and gentlemen, in America. Not a revenue problem," he said.

Scott will become the first African American from the South to serve in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction -- and the only African-American senator to serve in the upcoming 113th Congress.

The rest of the South Carolina House delegation – a particularly close-knit group, was asked to attend today’s announcement at the South Carolina statehouse, according to several South Carolina House Republican sources. 

Rep. Trey Gowdy,  one of the five people on Haley’s short list for the Senate seat, said she called him Sunday night to inform him of her decision.

Gowdy, who said he thanked the governor for “making the right decision” in picking Scott, said she was “very gracious” on the call and said she would like him to be at the event.

“I told her that I would the only way I would not be there is if she specifically asked me not to come,” Gowdy said, reached by phone as he was driving from Spartanburg to Columbia for the announcement.

Scott was elected to Congress in 2010, and he represents much of the South Carolina coastline from Charleston to Myrtle Beach. He'll face a special election in November of 2014 to serve out the remainder of DeMint's term.

"I have no doubt that he will fly through 2014," Haley said.

A former state representative, Scott was first elected to Congress during the Republican wave of 2010. He beat out the son of former S.C. Sen. Strom Thurmond in a contested primary thanks to a mixture of establishment and Tea Party support. 
Scott, who is 47-years-old, was tagged for stardom in the GOP just weeks after he was elected to his first term. He was one of two House freshman elected to newly-created positions in the House Republican leadership shortly after the GOP retook the House in 2010. 

A favorite of the Tea Party, Scott's personal story is a remarkable one: While working at Chick-Fil-A, he met a movie theater manager who took him under his wing and taught him the values of conservatism and hard work. Long a poor student, Scott turned his life around and ended up getting elected to the South Carolina State House and then Congress.

Scott is a deeply religious Christian and is unmarried.

With Scott's appointment, South Carolina will be the only state in the union with two senators who are unmarried.

NBC's Ali Weinberg and Michael O'Brien contributed reporting.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) today said she would not fill Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate seat with a temporary "placeholder" appointment.

"I believe South Carolina will be best served by a U.S. senator who will work hard day in and day out, and put him or herself before the voters at the soonest possible time," Haley said in a statement. "Accordingly, I reject the option of a 'placeholder.'"

Given that the appointment is set to fill the seat until 2014 -- when a special election takes place -- the governor had the option of selecting someone who would hold the seat through '14, but wouldn't run for the position in the special election.

But she dismissed that option today.

Also, Haley is set to hold a press conference in North Charleston tomorrow at noon ET, but according to NBC's Ali Weinberg, she isn't expected to announce her appointment at the event.

David Goldman / AP

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry waits to be introduced at a campaign stop at the Hilton Head Diner, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Hilton Head, S.C.

David Goldman / AP

Mary Amonitti of Hilton Head, S.C., asks a question to Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a campaign stop at the Hilton Head Diner, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, in Hilton Head, S.C.

After Perry lost an important South Carolina backer, he's changed the focus of his attacks to Obama rather than Mitt Romney on the campaign trail today at a diner in Hilton Head. NBC's Mark Murray breaks down where all the campaign money is being spent in the Palmetto state.

The South Carolina Republican primary is Jan. 21.  It will take 1,144 delegates to win the nomination at the Republican national convention this summer. So far, Perry has collected no delegates.

Slideshow: A look at Gov. Rick Perry's political career

Mark Lambie / El Paso Times via AP

The nation's longest-serving current governor and his presidential run.

Launch slideshow

A super PAC backing Mitt Romney has just made nearly $6 million in new ad buys in South Carolina and Florida in an apparent attempt to blow away the GOP frontrunner's opponents by the end of the month.

A source close to Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC, confirmed that in the last few days it has bought up $2.3 million of media time in South Carolina and another $3.6 million in Florida to run ads in those states.

Read more reporting from Michael Isikoff in 'The Isikoff Files'

These buys show the powerful financial muscle behind the Romney group - flush with big donations from wealthy Wall Street investors and others. They also exceed the reported $3.4 million ad buy that Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich super PAC, made in South Carolina this week after receiving a $5 million infusion from billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

The clash of the rival super PACs that can take unlimited donations from wealthy contributors and corporations - is increasingingly dominating the GOP presidential race. A firm that tracks media buys for NBC News has found that, even before these buys, the Romey super PAC had already spent $7 million on ads in the primaries, exceeding the $5.5 million that was spent by the official Romney presidential campaign.

The super PAC ads are also far more nasty than those being run by the campaigns. In his victory speech tonight, Mitt Romney took a pointed shot at other Republicans who he said were "dividing" the country - a clear shot at blistering ads that the Gingrich super PAC has vowed to run attacking Romney for costing thousands of workers their jobs when he ran the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Rick Tyler, a spokesman for the Gingrich super PAC, said that Romney should stop "whining" about his group's ads - and said they will begin running on South Carolina TV and radio stations by Thursday morning.

"It’s amazing that he would take the opportunity of his victory speech to allow us to get under his skin," Tyler said.

In an op-ed in The State newspaper today, comedian Stephen Colbert explained his offer to front $400,000 for the South Carolina Republican primary -- in exchange for the naming rights to the contest and a non-binding referendum on the ballot asking whether voters believed a) “corporations are people” or b) “only people are people.”

He wrote that the South Carolina Republican party no longer needed his money after a November Supreme Court decision ruled that counties, not the state party, were responsible for some of the costs of conducting the primary. (Before 2008, the state party paid all costs). The ruling also banned non-binding referenda from the ballot.

But, Colbert wrote, “being Southern gentlemen, [the S.C. GOP] graciously offered to still want” his offer, telling him he could still buy the primary’s naming rights. Colbert said he cut the offer in half to $200,000 but was turned down.

“They told the press that my requests, ‘were considered but were declined,’ because they, ‘were concerned about the sanctity of the primary election.'"

He added, “If nothing else good comes from this, we have at least narrowed down the exact value of sanctity — somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000."

While Colbert withdrew his initial offer, he put $500,000 back on the table after the South Carolina GOP announced last week that it would only allocate $180,000 in filing fees towards funding the primary, instead of the approximately $1 million it had hoped to raise -- putting counties on the line for the rest of the money.

“The counties need the money, and Colbert Super PAC wants to give it to you; call it a Christmas Miracle. I’ve already filled out the check, and to prove it’s no joke, I’ve written “No Joke” in the memo line. I’m going to be home in South Carolina over the holidays, so just give me a call. Both state parties have my contact info,” Colbert wrote.

In an email to NBC News, South Carolina executive director Matt Moore suggested that the party first considered Colbert’s offer as a private gesture. “Stephen Colbert, as a private citizen, called out of the clear blue and made an unsolicited offer to help his home state. We were intrigued and met with him, but also wary. We determined it was not in the State Party's best interests to accept Stephen's offer.

“Despite our repeatedly saying 'no,' Stephen Colbert, the comedian, seems intent on being involved. It's exactly why we were wary in the first place.”