South Carolina Congressman Tom Rice will face several challengers in his candidacy for re-election to the state’s seventh congressional district in 2022. This is expected after the liberal fiscal legislator infuriated the Republican Party’s base by joining nine other Republicans in the vote to oust the former president of the United States. USA Donald Trump last month.
(Trump was acquitted on Saturday for his alleged role in causing a riot in the United States capital on January 6, 2021.)
But while several candidates are emerging as real or potential challengers for Rice, the former vice governor of SC Ken Ard – whose potential candidacy was explored by this medium in a recent post – will not be among them.
“The typical political response would be, ‘After careful consideration, countless conversations and prayers with family and friends, I decided that now is not the right time to accept this challenge,'” said Ard. “But that would be a lie. I didn’t consider it carefully. I didn’t pray about it.”
“I talked to some close friends and I can guarantee that I have a ZERO interest in going to Washington – ZERO,” Ard continued. “I, however, would consider an ambassador on Pawleys Island.”
“Good luck to those who try,” said Ard, referring to the growing field.
In assessing Ard’s prospects for Congress, our founding editor Will Folks opined that the native of Pamplico, SC “has become one of the most influential voices in the state’s Pee Dee region – featuring an extremely popular morning show at Live 95 in Florence, SC”
People continued to cite Ard’s “good old boy bravado” and “paleoconservative populism” as an ideal match for the “large, well-organized Trump voter faction” off the coast of Palmetto.
In fact, Folks said he couldn’t think of a candidate “better positioned to exploit that populist streak than Ard”.
Ard is obviously happy with what he’s doing, however … and we can’t blame him for not wanting to part with his successful media / business empire and move to Washington, DC to be “one in 435”, as he told us. This means that South Carolina will be deprived (for now, at least) of a new chapter in its long history of political upheavals.
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Ard, readers will remember, served fourteen months as vice governor in 2011 (and early 2012) before resigning due to a campaign finance scandal. This medium was extremely critical of Ard at the time, although compared to some of the scandals that followed (ProbeGate and NukeGate, for example) his behavior was comparatively tame.
He also took responsibility for his actions … and paid the price.
Ard’s crime? In an attempt to project the appearance of ample financial support for his lieutenant governor campaign in 2010, he basically paid people to donate to him – part of an illicit “cash for contributions” scheme.
Although underhanded (and obviously illegal), Ard didn’t steal taxpayers or even abuse his campaign funds – he simply managed manner very creative in channeling your own money into your application.
And as he often observes, the mistake cost him his job …
We will continue to closely monitor this emerging field in the coming weeks, as candidates and candidate candidates evaluate their options against Rice, who was first elected in 2012 and has not faced credible opposition.
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-FITSNews
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