(CNN) – After soon-to-be congressman Mark Sanford is sworn into office this week, he’ll begin working with the national Republican Party, despite their campaign wing’s decision to pull out of his race just weeks ahead of the May 7 vote.
“I think always past is past, and I look forward to working with the entire Republican team,” Sanford said on “Fox News Sunday.”
After his ex-wife filed a criminal complaint accusing him of trespassing at her beach home in April, the National Republican Congressional Committee said they would no longer support Sanford in his bid for a political comeback in South Carolina.
The former South Carolina governor went on to win the election anyway, defeating Democratic rival Elizabeth Colbert-Busch by a nearly ten point margin.
Sanford said Sunday he was a “Republican who has always had an independent streak,” but that he was looking forward to “working with Republicans as they try to advance conservative ideas that I think are important and reflective where taxpayers are coming from across this country.”
When he gets to Congress, Sanford plans to “look under the hood at a whole host of things,” including entitlement programs he said were too costly.
“There's a lot of inefficiency out there, in all areas of government that people are, with warrant, concerned about. And I'm going to be focusing there as well,” he said.
Sanford’s election last week marked a political comeback for the former governor, who finished his term in 2011 after admitting to an extramarital affair.