Arrington was born in Fairfax, Virginia. Later in her childhood her family moved to Syracuse, New York. After high school Arrington attended Canisius College in New York but left during her sophomore year to marry her first husband, Doug Homrich. After applying for and receiving food stamps, Arrington and Homrich filed for personal bankruptcy in 1995. They are now divorced. After selling a business she started called the Breakfast Club of America, she used that money to get into real estate development. Later, she started a defense contracting company.
Arrington announced she would run for Congress in South Carolina's 1st congressional district, challenging Mark Sanford for his seat in the House in the 2018 election cycle. The Republican primary drew national media attention as it was seen as a test of how independent of President Donald Trump a Republican representative could be. Sanford had repeatedly criticized Trump since he took office. Only four Republican House members voted against Trump's interests more often than Sanford. During the campaign, Arrington ran ads criticizing Sanford for being insufficiently supportive of Trump. Her predecessor in the state house, Jenny Horne, had given up her seat to mount an unsuccessful challenge to Sanford in 2016. During the race, it drew attention that Arrington, who made her pro-Trump views the centerpiece of her campaign, appeared to have been critical of Trump in 2016. In a March 2016 Facebook post, she praised Mitt Romneyon the night that he delivered a rebuke of then-candidate Trump, whom Romney called "a phony, a fraud" and someone who was "playing the American public for suckers". Arrington also supported Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican primary for the presidential nomination. On the day of the June 12 Republican primary, Trump endorsed Arrington over Sanford, saying she would be "tough on crime," and would "continue our fight for lower taxes." In June 2018, Arrington defeated Sanford in the Republican primary, earning 50.5% of the vote to Sanford's 46.5%. Arrington became the second person to defeat an incumbent Republican member of Congress in the 2018 election cycle. In November 2018, Arrington was defeated in the general election by Joe Cunningham, the Democratic challenger, in a major upset. While Arrington carried four of the district's five counties, she could not overcome a nearly 17,000-vote deficit in Charleston County–more than four times the overall margin of 4,000 votes.
Personal life
Arrington and her first husband have three children. She later Rob Arrington, the owner of RLA Associates. On June 22, 2018, Arrington was seriously injured in an accident when a driver going the wrong way on a highway struck her vehicle. Arrington suffered a back fracture and broken ribs and had to have portions of her small intestine and colon removed.
