Charleston, SC – Former President Donald J. Trump addressed a campaign event in the weekend before South Carolina’s primary election. Tom Rice, now a conservative congressman on the wrong side of Trump, testified.
“I made my next election a little harder than the last,” he said Friday, urging his supporters to support him in what he calls a “fair, rational people” and a “good, solid major Republican.” Voting on Tuesday.
Two days ago and about 100 miles south, another Palmetto State Republican representative, Nancy Mace, acknowledged her position when she knocked on the doors one morning, drawing the wrath of the former president.
“I accept everything. I’m responsible. I will not back down,” he said, adding that he hoped voters in his downstream district would be sympathetic. He added.
Ms. Mages and Mr. Rice are two targets for the former president’s revenge on Tuesday. They are among those who have blamed the president for the January 6, 2021, pro-Trump mob attack on the US capital. Ms Mess said the presidential election had been “stolen” within days of her first term. Trump’s misrepresentations Provoked the riot and threatened his life. Ms. The district boundary to the north of Mace’s district is Mr. Rice immediately condemned Mr Trump and, along with nine other Republicans (but not Ms. Mace), later voted for his removal.
Now, facing the primary challenges with the support of the former president, the two have taken completely different approaches to political survival. Mr. Mays, Mr. Aside from his criticisms of Trump, he also wanted to discuss his conservative vote record and independence trend in policy debates. Mr. Rice, instead, dug, Defending his dismissal vote, Mr. Trump cheered In process.
If they want to block their primary rivals on Tuesday, Ms. Mace and Mr. Rice will join the growing list of incumbents who have endured the wrath of the Trump faction of the GOP without ending their political careers. Yet their contradictory strategies – a reflection of their political intuition and the diverse politics of their districts – Mr. You can see how far a candidate can go beyond Trump.
In the eyes of his supporters, Ms. Mace’s past views are less convincing than the referendum on dismissal. Aiming to improve his relationship with pro-Trump sections of the GOP, he has spent almost every day of the past several weeks on the campaign trail reminding voters of his Republican beliefs. Not his unfiltered criticism of Trump.
Everyone knows I was unhappy on January 6th. All my modules know.
His district, which stretches from Charleston’s left-leaning corners to Hilton Head’s conservative country clubs, has voters including far-right Republicans and Liberal Democrats. Ms. Mace not only marketed himself as a conservative candidate, but also as someone who could defend a politically different district against a democratic rival in November.
“It will always be a swing district,” he said. “I’m a conservative, but I also understand that I do not only represent conservatives.”
However, this is not good news for everyone in the lowlands.
Ted Huffman, owner of Bluffton BBQ, a restaurant located in the heart of Bluffton’s tourist city center, said he supports Katie Arrington, a former Trump-backed state representative. Calculated against Ms. Mess., Mr. It was not his enmity with Trump, but rather his absence from the area of the district restaurant, that Mr. Huffman said.
“Katie Arrington, she’s come here,” Mr. Huffman said Ms. Arrington Blafton recalled some times she went to the BBQ. “I never saw Nancy Mesa.”
During a Summerville event with former South Carolina Governor Nicky Haley, Ms. Mace delivered a stump speech that reduced the list of right-wing speaking points. , Support for military personnel. He did not mention Mr. Trump.
Ms. Mace, Ms. Predicts a decisive primary victory against Arrington, who has his Trump endorsement at the center of his campaign message. Ms. Mace said the success of confronting it would prove “the weakness of any consensus.”
“Usually I don’t put too much weight on approvals because they are not a bar,” he said. “It’s really a candidate. It’s important for the people to vote.
Speaking from her front hall in Moncks Corner, SC, 42-year-old Deidre Stechmeyer, the stay-at-home mother, said Ms. He said he did not closely follow Mace’s bet. But when asked about what the Congresswoman said condemning the Jan. 6 riots, he changed his mind.
“That’s what I agree with her,” he said, adding that he supported Ms. Mace’s decision to certify the Electoral College vote – which some in the GOP have said. They have pointed to a definite betrayal of Trump. “There was so much conflict and uncertainty. I think it should have been certified.
Mr. Rice’s indictment, on the other hand, offers a more recognizable twist.
This is part of the reason why Ms. Mace is comfortably leading her race, According to recent pollsMr. Rice faces the most primary challenges, and will be run-off with Trump-approved state representative Russell Fry later Tuesday.
Mr. Fry’s campaign in its message Mr. Focusing on Rice’s indictment, Mr. Has turned into a referendum for Rice’s five terms.
“It’s more than Donald Trump. It’s about a current congressman losing faith in a more conservative district,” said Matt Moore, a former South Carolina Republican leader and adviser to Mr Fry’s campaign.
However, Mr. Rice is betting on his ultra-conservative economic record and the former president’s unsupported support to win him for the sixth time in one of South Carolina’s pro-Trump congressional districts.
In an interview, Mr. Rice noted the push for social issues on Republican policy – which he said was driven by the party’s former president’s faction, which helped redefine it.
He spoke in support of the US Alliance, but said that maintaining some independence was not the answer. “If we’re not for that, God, I do not know what the Republican Party is about.”
The impeachment vote also received the support of some voters. Rick Giles, SC, a Rice supporter in Conway, said Mr. Said to appreciate Rice.
“He stood up against Trump when not many people did,” he said. Giles said. “He stood by his values. He did not go with party policy. I like it.”
Mr. in the northeast corner of South Carolina on the North Carolina border. Rice’s district is the state’s most conservative, almost 30 points ahead of Republicans. And before the referendum vote, Mr. Rice, Mr. He was one of the most staunch supporters of Trump, with more than 90 percent of Mr.
“It simply came to our notice then. This is not about my support for Trump. This is not about my ideology. Not because this other guy is good, ”he said. Rice said. “There is only one reason why he is doing this and it is only for revenge.
Mr. Trump has had less success in the states at the source of his primary challenging motivation. In Georgia, his two main rivals, Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, easily won their primary victory over rivals backed by the former president. Two House races he did not recognize those in office have gone all the way to the runoff.
After Mr Trump backed his primary challenge, former congressman Mark Sanford, best known by Ms Arrington, predicted that Ms Mess would win in 2018.
“I think she will be fine,” he said, pointing to the state’s increasing number of transplant surgeons from the northern states who are in favor of institutional candidates. “It’s good for Nancy, it’s not good for Katie.”
Still, he said Tuesday’s results were unlikely to change the former president’s political stance.
“It’s a dilemma with Trump,” he said. Sanford said. “You’ve not half, not half – you’ve in or out.”
