Fry touts meager upbringing, conservative values in second ad of SC7 campaign cycle
Trump-backed congressional hopeful Russell Fry on Monday launched his second TV ad, branding himself a “common sense conservative” with small town values who’s attuned to the needs of the working class.
The 30-second commercial shows Fry, a Surfside Beach attorney running in the state’s 7th Congressional District, standing in front of his childhood home that was “without heat or air conditioning,” wearing blue jeans and a red collared shirt.
Fry is looking to knock off incumbent Tom Rice in a competitive June 14 GOP primary.
His latest ad takes a softer approach than a March 8 effort which portrays Rice as a comic strip “villain” and skewers him for voting to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“My parents taught me to work hard and always try to help your neighbor,” Fry says in the new ad, which runs on broadcast, digital and cable outlets across the 7th district.
In the new ad, Fry said neighbors are “suffering” before cutting to images of a filling station showing high prices for gas and barren store shelves.
It shows an image of Rice in front of the U.S. Capitol, alongside President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Despite his vote to impeach Trump, Rice — in Congress since 2011 — voted with the president 94 percent of the time. But he said Trump’s unwillingness to stop the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, was too great to ignore.
Fry in his ad says Rice is part of a group that has “forgotten the American Dream.”
Rice’s campaign hit back hard Monday. In a statement to The Sun News, he said Fry’s 58 percent score from the American Conservative Union puts him closer to being a Democrat.
“Russell’s just a fraud. Plain and simple,” Rice’s campaign said. “Russell Fraud will say any lie for a job. Is that who you want representing you?”
It’s unclear how much the commercials cost Fry’s campaign, but the latest round of quarterly expense reports are due to the Federal Election Commission by April 15.
As of Dec. 31, the latest figures available, Fry had $327,350 cash on hand.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 8:37 AM.