Trump has been dedicated to ousting Rice and even held considered one of his campaign-style rallies right here in Florence in March to assist state Rep. Russell Fry, the 37-year-old Republican he is chosen to spice up within the crowded area.
Whereas each campaigns admit it is doable no candidate will get 50% of the vote and the highest two will go to a runoff in two weeks, the outcomes will point out the power of Trump’s affect within the deep-red seventh District.
On Monday, throughout a closing marketing campaign occasion right here, the second-largest inhabitants heart within the district, Fry served fried rice to supporters as a play on the main candidates’ names.
“Who’s able to fry some rice tomorrow?” Fry punned to cheers.
Rice’s vote to question Trump — which got here after the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters — has remained a central situation within the main, and Fry has labored to remind Republican voters of what many view as a betrayal of Trump. Calling himself a “dedicated, America First conservative,” Fry mentioned Rice has misplaced contact along with his voters.
“He has forgotten who despatched him to Washington and the place he got here from,” Fry mentioned.
However Rice has not run away from his vote.
“Clearly I do stand by my impeachment vote,” Rice informed CNN. “I do not assume it was a courageous choice. I assumed it was the precise choice. It is by no means the fallacious time to do the precise factor.”
Requested whether or not he feared it might value him his election within the main on Tuesday, he replied: “I do not assume it is going to value me my election, but when doing the precise factor prices me my election, then I will put on it like a badge.”
At a marketing campaign cease Monday close to Pawley’s Island, simply south of his hometown Myrtle Seaside, the 64-year-old congressman held forth about fuel costs, inflation and the elephant within the room: impeachment.
One man thanked him for what he referred to as a courageous vote.
‘Anyone who thinks they will put Nancy in a field, they’re fallacious’
An identical dynamic is occurring within the neighboring 1st District. A primary-term Republican, the 44-year-old Mace didn’t vote for impeachment however has nonetheless earned the wrath of Trump for voting to certify the 2020 election in considered one of her first actions as a member of Congress.
At an occasion Sunday in Summerville, north of Charleston, Mace informed CNN that she doesn’t remorse that certification vote.
“I am a constitutional conservative,” Mace mentioned in an interview. “I voted with of us like Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Sen. Tim Scott to protect the Structure as a result of what we could not do is permit one individual — the vp of the US — to single-handedly overturn the Electoral Faculty and the outcomes of a presidential election.”
However Trump’s ire from that vote in early January 2021 didn’t abate even after Mace voted towards impeachment weeks later. He endorsed former state Rep. Katie Arrington, a intraparty rival of Mace’s from their time within the legislature. That is the 51-year-old Arrington’s second effort to unseat a Republican incumbent, after her profitable bid in 2018 to defeat Rep. Mark Sanford within the main.
Whereas Arrington ran because the extra pro-Trump candidate in that race, her embrace of the controversial President harm her within the common election that yr, when she misplaced to Democrat Joe Cunningham. Cunningham would go on to lose reelection to Mace in 2020.
“It is a swing district and he or she misplaced it,” Mace informed CNN Sunday. “I needed to go win it again.”
These latest swings of the district, which relies round Charleston however stretches up and down the coastal communities of the state’s Lowcountry area, point out the bounds of operating as a totally pro-Trump candidate when the citizens has extra average GOP voters.
In Bluffton, a city close to the resort group of Hilton Head, Jack and Cindy Hill mentioned they determined to assist Mace after seeing an Arrington advert that featured Trump prominently.
“We form of made up our thoughts as soon as we noticed that advert,” Jack Hill informed CNN on Monday. “We see it on a regular basis.”
“I simply cannot vote for someone who calls names,” mentioned Cindy Hill, who famous she and her husband do not all the time vote for Republicans however will likely be doing so Tuesday. She added that she a lot most popular the Mace advert that includes former South Carolina governor and Trump’s United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley.
“It’s totally good. There is no title calling,” she mentioned.
The congresswoman’s marketing campaign is hoping that Haley, who appeared for Mace in Summerville on Sunday and in Hilton Head on Monday, can allay any lingering considerations amongst conservatives.
“Nancy Mace is hard as nails,” Haley mentioned in Summerville. “What I like about Nancy, she isn’t a pushover. You might not agree with 100% of every thing she does, however she’s combating for you daily.”
Haley didn’t point out Trump by title — and walked away as reporters tried to ask her questions — however she acknowledged the balancing act Mace has sought to keep up amidst Trump’s anger.
“Whether or not it is institution Republicans or the resistance Republicans,” Haley mentioned, “anyone who thinks they will put Nancy in a field, they’re fallacious.”
Voters communicate out
Whereas Trump has a robust following in South Carolina, a state he simply carried twice, conversations with voters revealed comparable sentiments discovered throughout a string of main contests final month, the place Trump supporters have been very happy to disregard his endorsements and make their very own choices.
“He misspeaks quite a bit,” mentioned John McAuley, a Republican from Summerville. “I like him. I believe he was an excellent president, however I do not agree with him coming in and making an attempt to pressure this election as a result of he did not like what Nancy did.”
Margaret Emmans, a Republican who got here to see Mace and Haley on Sunday, didn’t mince phrases.
“I might not comply with his lead,” Emmans mentioned of the previous President’s endorsement of Arrington. “I do not know that it’ll have any impact on the race. I am a Trump supporter and I am additionally an enormous — very large — Nancy Mace supporter.”
Joe Craft, a longtime Republican voter who lives close to Charleston, praised Mace for having “a voting file good for conservatives.” He mentioned he believes she did the precise factor voting to certify the election.
“It is extra concerning the candidate who will put the nation first,” Craft mentioned, “fairly than a relationship with President Trump.”
And Cindy Hill, in Bluffton, was much more blunt.
“We’d like higher Republicans to face as much as Trump,” she mentioned.
Rice mentioned he believed the end result of his main race within the seventh District would supply a sign of the path of the Republican Social gathering.
“I believe Donald Trump is the previous and we have to transfer on,” Rice mentioned, talking aloud the phrases that many Republicans solely say in non-public. “I believe he was a really consequential president. He received lots of good issues accomplished, he lifted lots of people, however I believe he is the previous. We have to transfer on to elect someone else. The following president, I consider, must be someone who will pull America collectively fairly than ripping it aside.”
However loads of Republican voters in South Carolina not solely love what Trump did as president, however see elected officers who oppose him as a part of the issue. Ken Ard, the previous Republican lieutenant governor who’s from Florence County, expressed the view at Fry’s Monday occasion.
“We now have disagreements amongst Republicans,” Ard mentioned. “However there is a motion afoot on this occasion referred to as America First. I’ve not offered my soul to Donald Trump. I’ve offered my political soul to America First. I consider it with each fiber of my being. And people son of a weapons who tried to run Donald Trump out of city from the day he received there, Tom Rice voted with them as Donald Trump was leaving. That is a bridge too far for me.”
Mary Foxworth, a voter from Florence who says she’s supporting Fry, put it extra succinctly.
“We simply need somebody who will assist Trump,” she mentioned.