Conservative SC district shaken by MP Tom Rice’s vote to impeach Trump | Palmetto Policy

MYRTLE BEACH – Over the course of eight years in Congress, US Congressman Tom Rice has developed a reputation as a trusted player on the Republican team, known to friends and colleagues as relatively easygoing in a Congressional delegation filled with outsized personalities.

He rarely sought the spotlight or broke through the party’s ranks, expressing consistent support for President Donald Trump and traditional conservative policies. He bowed his head, won a seat on an influential House committee, and defended the financing of local projects in his country.

“He’s the hardest-working member of Congress, I think I’ve met,” said US Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., praising Rice as “incredibly brilliant” and “an effective voice” for her district.

Then, in a dramatic turnaround on Wednesday, Rice became one of only 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment, a move so surprising that many of his allies spent the next few minutes wondering if he inadvertently pressed the wrong button.

Finally, it was clear: the vote was not a mistake.

In a statement explaining his decision, Rice nodded at his record, noting that he “supported this president for four years”.

Still, Trump’s “unforgivable” role in provoking and failing to suppress a US Capitol rebellion proved too much for him to even swallow.

“I have been loyal to him, but he certainly didn’t feel loyal to us,” Rice said, recalling the scenes of Trump supporters breaking into police lines and looting the Capitol in furious pursuit of lawmakers.

In addition, he noted, Trump had multiple opportunities after the accident to express regret and healing, but he did not.

Rice’s vote immediately overturned the political order in his country, prompting a quick reaction from many members of his own party, who turned their attention to expelling him from office.

Now, Rice is about to face a reckoning at the polls next year, in what is almost certain to become his first competitive GOP primary since taking office.

The competition is likely to provide a revealing insight into the resistance of Trump’s influence on Republican politics after he left the White House, and will test the question of whether an extensive history of Republican allegiance can be erased by a single vote.

Challenging potentials emerge

Former chairman of Horry County Council and a tax attorney by profession, Rice defeated eight Republican opponents to win the party’s nomination for the newly chosen 7th congressional district in 2012.

The district extends from Georgetown County to much of northeastern Pee Dee to the border with North Carolina. However, the center of its political activity and most of its voters are anchored in Horry County, a ruby ​​red outpost where ambitious Republican perspectives abound.

Not only is the district solidly Republican, it is also home to the most pro-Trump Republican base in a pro-Trump state. In South Carolina’s Republican presidential primaries in 2016, Trump beat Rice’s district by a larger margin than any other, beating runner-up Ted Cruz by almost 23 percentage points.

Rice comfortably won the seat in the 2012 general election and has not faced any threatening opposition, either from Republicans or Democrats, since.

Many Republican activists in the district now expect that to change.

At least one potentially formidable major challenger has emerged: Ken Richardson, the chairman of the Horry County School Board and a well-known former Mercedes-Benz car dealer in the area.

Richardson said he was absolutely shocked to see Rice, whom he considers a personal friend, to vote for the president’s impeachment. The decision, Richardson argued, goes against the will of Trump-loving constituents of Rice, who he said reached hundreds this week asking him to launch a campaign in 2022.

“I know one thing for sure,” said Richardson. “It will be primary.”

Former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride has not yet decided to challenge Rice, but hopes it will not take another two years to hold an election. He is circulating a petition asking Rice to step down immediately.

Horry County Republican Party President Dreama Perdue said most of the calls she received were from constituents outraged by the vote and people looking to start the process of finding new candidates.

Before Wednesday’s vote, Perdue believed that Rice was doing an admirable job representing the district. But the vote was a “punch in the stomach,” she said, and something that will affect the party in the future.

“I am very disappointed and frustrated that he did that,” said Perdue. “I’m hearing people across the media saying, ‘I’m not going to help the Horry County GOP any more’, ‘what can I do to help? We need to eliminate it.’ “

Although Rice said he was confident he did the right thing, he acknowledged that it could hurt his chances of re-election in 2022.

“I’m going to keep trying to do my job well,” Rice told the Post and Courier. “It has been the honor of my life to do that. I hope they re-elect me. But if they don’t, it’s okay. I’m at peace with it.”

Rice maintains influential relationships

The assignment has powerful advantages in South Carolina politics, but it is far from infallible. In the past decade, two Republican congressmen in South Carolina have lost their seats on charges that they were insufficiently towing the party line.

In the wake of the 2010 Tea Party, Trey Gowdy overthrew then-incumbent Bob Inglis, a comparatively moderate Republican from conservative Upstate who had urged his party to take more active measures against climate change.

Then, in 2018, little-known state lawmaker Katie Arrington surprised then-US Congressman Mark Sanford of Charleston in a disturbance that few observers saw happen after she argued that he had been overly critical of Trump – an early indicator of Trump’s control over the GOP base.

Still, some Republican strategists say that Rice has some valuable assets that can help him avoid a similar fate.

A few years after being elected for the first time, Rice won a coveted seat on the powerful Forms and Means Committee, offering him – and his constituents – a table chair for high-risk debates over the country’s tax code and laws. of health.

He worked closely with Trump on one of his greatest accomplishments, the 2017 tax review, was one of the first Republicans to support Trump’s protectionist trade policies and was the primary champion of a popular local priority: building Interstate 73 for connect the Grand Strand to the rest of the state’s highway system.

Through massive fundraising and little need to spend a lot of money to facilitate reelections, he built an intimidating campaign war chest of more than $ 1 million, one of the largest accounts in the entire Congress of South Carolina. South. And he maintains close relations with a number of influential elected officials in the district and across the state, evidenced by his reluctance to openly criticize Rice after his impeachment vote.

From his own personal interactions, Rice said he heard a mostly favorable response. But local conservative social media and blogs exploded with violent opposition, and the state Republican Party also made it clear that it was not satisfied.

“We totally disagree with this hoax (according to Trump’s impeachment) and to say that I am deeply disappointed with Congressman Tom Rice would be an understatement,” said party president Drew McKissick immediately after the vote.

Graham, a longtime Trump ally who is vehemently opposed to impeachment, said he nevertheless maintains “total respect” for Rice and has no doubts about his sincerity.

“I know a lot of people are upset with him, but I did things in the past that bothered them because I thought they were right,” said Graham.

Local Republican state lawmakers have long been seen as potential heirs of Rice when he retires, such as State Representative Russel Fry of Surfside Beach or State Senator Stephen Goldfinch of Murrells Inlet, said they remain focused on their legislative responsibilities for now and have abstained to comment on your vote.

Former Myrtle Beach city councilor Randal Wallace, who was one of the Republicans who lost to Rice in the 2012 primary, said he admired his opponent at once for showing conviction, although he did not personally support the impeachment so close to the end. of the term Trump tournament.

“This was a vote of conscience,” said Wallace. “I thought he did what he had to do and I certainly don’t criticize him for that.”