Myrtle Beach’s Russell Fry says he’s challenging Tom Rice in 2022, joining crowded primary

South Carolina state Rep. Russell W. Fry says he plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Tom Rice for his seat in Congress next year, Fry told The Sun News Friday morning.

Fry joins an already-crowded field of challengers looking to oust the five-term Congressman, and plans to formally announce his challenge to Rice Thursday, Aug. 5 at the Grand Strand Brewing Company in Myrtle Beach.

Fry, saying he was traveling Friday morning, was not available for a formal interview with The Sun News, but confirmed his plans to challenge Rice. He said in a statement that Rice has shown a willingness to vote against conservatives in South Carolina and that he would be a representative who would vote more in line with what voters believe.

While the rest of South Carolina’s Republican delegation is standing strong, Tom Rice and (U.S. Rep.) James Clyburn (D-Charleston) are voting together time and time again. This election is about restoring trust and I’m the candidate who can do it,” Fry said.

He noted that he’s taken key votes as a representative in Columbia on election issues, Second Amendment rights and pro-life causes.

“I want to take that same courage I’ve shown in Columbia to Washington and restore people’s trust in their Congressman,” he said. “I’ll have more to say when I officially announce my candidacy on Thursday.”

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Fry said he’s running against Rice because Rice “broke (the) trust” of both former President Donald Trump when he voted to impeach him in January, and of the voters of South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District who supported Trump.

“He campaigned with President Trump and worked with President Trump and was always willing to use President Trump’s name for his reelection purposes, but he broke that trust,” Fry told The Associated Press. “I think the people of the Grand Strand and the Pee Dee deserve someone they can trust again, and I think I’m that person.”

Other candidates looking to challenge Rice, too, have cited Rice’s vote to impeach Trump as a key reason they joined the race, and their chance to unseat him. So far, Horry County Board of Education Chairman Ken Richardson, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, as well as Horry County residents Jeanette Spurlock and Justin Davison have all begun campaigning to unseat Rice. State Rep. William Bailey (R-North Myrtle Beach) previously explored a run for the seat but has said he’ll run for reelection to his state house seat instead.

And conservative media personality Graham Allen, of Anderson, SC, has also joined the race, and has raised more than $500,000 so far from a nationwide body of donors. Several other candidates have also joined the race.

Rice has defended his vote to impeach Trump, both in interviews and at town hall events around the district. He has said he voted with Trump a majority of the time, and has said he felt Trump’s actions and rhetoric on Jan. 6 toward former Vice President Michael Pence drove him to vote to impeach.

“If it’s going to be based on my voting record, they’re going to have a hard time saying I’m not a conservative,” Rice told The Sun News in February. “If they endorse a riot at the Capitol and an attack on the Constitution, I don’t think that’s a very defensible platform to run on.”

On Friday, Rice told The Sun News he welcomes challengers, and has faced primary and general election challengers every two years.

“It’s like I’ve been saying time and time again, I’ve faced opposition every time and I’m proud of what I’ve done,” he said.

Following his vote to impeach Trump in January, Rice was censured by the South Carolina Republican Party, a formal rebuke from party members expressing their displeasure with his decision. Rice was one of 10 Republicans to support the impeachment, and was one of the strongest Trump-supporting members to do so. The data journalism website fivethirtyeight.com found that Rice voted with Trump 94% of the time throughout Trump’s term in office.

Fry, an attorney, has served in the South Carolina House of Representatives since wining a special election in 2015 and has quickly risen through the ranks in GOP leadership. After serving on the Republican Party’s state executive committee, he was elected to his seat, and was named chief majority whip — a position that has him work to convince other Republican lawmakers on how to vote — in 2018.

Fry lives in Surfside Beach.

South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District stretches from Georgetown County to the state line and includes Horry, Marion, Chesterfield, Dillon, Marlboro and Darlington counties, as well as part of Florence County.

The primary election for the seat will be held next year.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional input from Fry.

This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 9:37 AM.