‘Biden is not my president:’ Will Fry stick to 2020 election talk in his primary bid?

Former President Donald Trump made one thing clear this week to the congressional candidates he’s endorsed: Simply backing claims of a stolen 2020 election aren’t enough to stay in his good graces.

On Wednesday, Trump withdrew his support from one-time political ally U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama — a Charleston native running for U.S. Senate — after Brooks urged supporters to look beyond the 2020 contest and aim for winnable races in 2022 and 2024.

That about-face raises a big question for state Rep. Russell Fry, Trump’s pick for the S.C. 7th Congressional District seat: Will his stance on the 2020 election be forceful enough to keep Trump by his side?

Fry is also in his rival’s crosshairs. They want him want him to go on record about moving beyond the former president’s defeat.

“Take it from Mo Brooks. It’s 100 percent or nothing,” Tom Rice, the district’s incumbent, said in a statement to The Sun News on Thursday. “If Russell Fry picked Donald Trump over the U.S. Constitution, voters have a right to know. My oath is to the United States Constitution, not to Donald Trump.”

Rice was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

That vote put his re-election bid this spring in the national spotlight, and has put Rice on Trump’s list of Republicans he wants to drive from of office.

Fry has remained silent about whether he’d divorce himself from the 2020 election outcome, but said through a campaign spokesman on Friday its results were a “disaster.”

“Some states changed laws after the election started and voters were disenfranchised. That is why I worked so hard for election integrity reform in the state house this year. America deserves better than we were given in 2020,” Fry said.

On Jan. 30 — just hours before his Trump endorsement went public — Fry used his official Facebook page to criticize the 2020 outcome as he gave a video legislative update on election security measures moving through the General Assembly.

“If you look at the 2020 election, it is very clear that it was rigged,” Fry said on the page. “You had judges ruling one way and being overturned, you had state secretaries of state deviating from clear law on elections. You had un-elected bureaucrats at the county level changing laws,” he said.

In his Friday statement, Fry said Trump’s endorsement was valuable because America deserves better than we were given in 2020.”

“I’m also thrilled with President Trump’s endorsement of my campaign for Congress because no one feels more betrayed by Tom Rice than President Trump and the voters of the 7th District,’ he said.

Fry cited in his Facebook remarks a Republican National Committee report released in August alleging Democrats used the pandemic as cover to push initiatives such as expanded mail-in voting and ballot harvesting.

“It’s really important that we get it right in the states,” Fry said.

Near the end of his video message, Fry added: “Joe Biden is not my president. His policies are not mine and if election laws were followed in 2020, President Trump would be making the next Supreme Court pick.”

Allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election have been widely debunked.

Fry also stood alongside MyPillow CEO and leading election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell on March 12 during a “Save America” rally headlined by Trump at the Florence Regional Airport. Lindell stumped for Fry inside a campaign tent hours before the former president took to the stage.

Lindell, the Minnesota-born entrepreneur, is facing 11 lawsuits by a voting machine manufacturer. Those suits claim Lindell is guilty of defamation and fraud in making those allegations.

Asked during the rally about which candidates he would support, Lindell said, “To have these great candidates that have people’s back, it’s very easy. It’s, ‘do you think the election was stolen.”

“If you say, ‘yes,’ you’re in,’” he said.

The issue of whether the 2020 election was legitimate has become such a litmus test in the 7th District race. Other campaigns are criticizing those who don’t say forcefully enough that the election was stolen.

Donald Smith, who’s helping run Horry County school board chairman Ken Richardson’s campaign for congress, pointed out that it was Richardson who called on other candidates to say the election was stolen.

Fry posted his video on Facebook just days after Richardson issued that challenge.

Richardson and his campaign believe that they should have won Trump’s endorsement, something that’s become a talking point for Richardson at events.

“If that’s the guidelines (for an endorsement), then Russell falls way off the meter of being Trump-like,” Smith said. “It’s a question he’s not answered.”

He added: “It just shows … that if Trump would have done due diligence and come to this community and talked to everybody, his choice wouldn’t have been Russell Fry.”

Other candidates in the race have been plain on their views about the 2020 election.

At a congressional candidate forum in Carolina Forest last week, candidate and former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride was explicit.

“The election was stolen,” he said. “We need free fair elections.”

At another event hosted by the Horry County Republican Party, other candidates also said they believe the election was stolen.

“We voted for who we wanted. I believe the election was stolen,” said Christian speaker and insurance agent Barbara Arthur. “If you send me to Congress, if the Lord allows me to serve, I will be fighting communism.”

While preaching the election was “stolen” may win Fry and other candidates’ favor among Trump die-hards, not all voters are on board.

At the Carolina Forest forum, for example, someone brought up Jan. 6, and an argument ensued.

One couple quickly left because the forum was “getting nasty.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 12:00 AM with the headline "‘Biden is not my president:’ Will Fry stick to 2020 election talk in his primary bid?."