Russell Fry, the Republican South Carolina congressional candidate who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, has soared to victory in a landslide primary election against incumbent Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC).
Rice was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump after Jan. 6.
After getting primaried in South Carolina, his anti-Trump agenda has cost him his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Fry won the election by a landslide, beating Rice so badly that he didn’t even get into a run-off with his Trump-backed challenger.
When the race was called, Fry had 51.1% of the vote, with at least 50% needed to avoid the runoff.
Rice was at 24.6%.
“Win, lose or draw, I did the right thing, and I know I did the right thing,” Rice said of his vote to impeach Trump.
“I can’t think of any president who has ever done anything worse in terms of government.”
What an honor. What a win.
I’m exhausted in every single way but we put it all on the field. The fight continues to November, and then after that we take this country back! #AmericaFirst
— Rep. Russell Fry (@RussellFrySC) June 15, 2022
At his election night party Fry said:
“The voters have spoken. Tom Rice is coming home.
“And we did it, what everyone said could not be done.
“Today, the conservatives in the Republican Party won.
“Today, Donald Trump won.
“And today, the voters of the 7th Congressional District won.”
From The AP:
Rice, a five-term congressman, was defeated Tuesday by state Rep. Russell Fry, who was endorsed by Trump.
Rice was a strong supporter of Trump’s policies in Washington but said he was left no choice but to impeach Trump over his failure to calm the mob that violently sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina also angered Trump, but she sought to make amends and won her GOP primary over her own Trump-backed challenger.
In other races Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Dina Titus in Nevada handily defeated her progressive challenger, while Republican Rep. Mark Amodei won his primary against a son of one of the state’s most famous sports figures
From the BBC:
Political analysts expect the winners of the Republican primaries in ruby-red South Carolina to prevail in the election against their Democratic challengers in November’s mid-term elections.
In other results, for the first time, Republicans flipped a heavily Hispanic seat in Texas.
During a special election in the 34th district Mayra Flores captured a seat that President Biden won by 13 points in 2020.
The victory comes as Mr Biden’s approval rating fell for a third straight week to 39% in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, as Americans grapple with soaring inflation.
