Sanford describes his decision to run for the United States Senate, a position he won in 1986. He worried that the Democratic Party was in disarray after a string of losses in presidential elections and saw himself as the best candidate to reunite it. When he entered the race he bumped fellow Democrat Lauch Faircloth out of consideration, a move that perhaps spurred Faircloth to leave the party and oppose, and defeat, Sanford in the following election cycle.