His critiques of the president's behavior, his skepticism of tariffs, and his calls for the release of Mr. Trump's tax returns have irritated many voters in his district, which runs along much of South Carolina's coast.
Although the district includes Charleston, the state's largest city, it also takes in rural areas that strongly favor Mr. Trump, who carried the district by 14 points in 2016 and has sometimes become a singular litmus test in Republican primaries since then.
"This is certainly, for lack of a better term, a schizophrenic district," Mr. Sanford said on Tuesday as he drove his well-worn Chevrolet Suburban to a deli in Summerville.
"The biggest county is Charleston County — it's a blue county! — so when I do a town-hall meeting, you do 1,000 or 500 people screaming at you saying Trump needs to be impeached," he continued. "Meanwhile, you find yourself in a Republican primary where you're not 'Trump enough.' It's like you can't win these days, in terms of trying to talk about ideas."
Mr. Sanford has been prominent in South Carolina for more than two decades, repeatedly winning elections to Congress and spending two eventful terms in the Governor's Mansion. But despite that, Ms. Arrington has summoned a political strength that surprised many observers in South Carolina.
She has succeeded, in large part, because she swung at Mr. Sanford with little apparent reservation or restraint, filling her advertisements and debates with barbs about the congressman's personal and political integrity.
"You can't have a seat at the table in the Oval Office, because you have offended the president numerous times," Ms. Arrington told Mr. Sanford during a debate on a talk-radio station on Monday. "You should have the wherewithal not to go on CNN to bash our president. Instead, work with the president, work with leadership to get done what we want done here."
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