Republican presidential candidate Mark Sanford will make a campaign stop in Peoria on Friday morning.
The former congressman and governor from South Carolina is making a long-shot bid against President Donald Trump in the GOP primary.
Sanford said he'll focus on debt, the deficit, and spending as his central campaign issues.
“My intention and purpose is to begin a national dialogue with voters about our nation’s disastrous financial state. I continue to be perplexed and amazed by the ways in which President Trump and my would-be Democrat presidential opponents have stayed silent on this critical issue,” said Sanford in prepared remarks.
He said it is also important to return to the "political norms and institutional framework our Founding Fathers gave us," and a more civil tone in political discourse.
The Republican's 11-state campaign kickoff began with a lightly-attended Philadelphia visit on Wednesday. After his Friday stop in Peoria outside the Caterpillar Visitor Center on Water Street at 9 a.m., he'll head west to Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa.
His tour ends next Monday near the Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Sanford was a Trump critic in Congress. He ultimately lost in a Republican primary to state Rep. Katie Arrington last year. Democrat Joe Cunningham ultimately defeated Arrington in the general election race for South Carolina's 1st District.
Sanford ultimately came through a 2009 gubernatorial impeachment attempt after he revealed an extramarital affair.
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