‘Betrayed’: SC Republicans start push to censure Rep. Tom Rice over impeachment vote

After voting to impeach former President Donald Trump two weeks ago, South Carolina Representative Tom Rice is now facing an effort among his own party members in his home district to censure him for that vote.

The effort began almost immediately after news broke that Rice, a Republican and longtime supporter of Trump, joined nine other GOP members in the House of Representatives to impeach the former president, county party officials told The Sun News on Monday. The effort could culminate as soon as this week, with the Executive Committee of the South Carolina GOP expected to meet Saturday afternoon in Columbia, where a vote on a resolution to censure Rice could take place.

A vote to censure Rice would not have any formal consequences for the 5th-term congressman — the South Carolina GOP does not have a process to recall and replace members from elected office, for example — but the effort would signal a hearty rebuke of his move to impeach Trump, which has already kicked off an effort to unseat him come 2022.

“I’m not going to vilify the man but he needs to know that what he did was wrong,” said Jeanne Bassett Lumpkin, the chairwoman of the Marion County GOP, who supports the effort to censure Rice. “All of the chairmen of all the counties in the 7th congressional district are completely behind the decision to censure, rebuke, just in some way let Rep. Rice know that his decision was based on fear, not fact, and definitely was not the wish of his constituents.”

Bassett Lumpkin and other county GOP leaders The Sun News interviewed said they were disheartened that Rice chose to back away from Trump at a critical moment. Several said they believe there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election and that Trump and his supporters were right to protest the outcome, and that Trump should not have been impeached for his speech ahead of a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol building, nor his actions afterwards. No concrete evidence has emerged to date that there was widespread voter fraud during the November election.

The Sun News surveyed the leadership of the eight county Republican parties in the 7th congressional district on Monday and found that three-quarters, or six of the eight, party leaders supported an effort to censure Rice. Leaders from the other two county parties, in Marlboro and Darlington Counties, weren’t available for comment Monday. The 7th congressional district stretches from Georgetown County to the North Carolina border, and eastward to Chesterfield County.

Phone calls and text messages seeking comment by The Sun News were left for Rice on Monday.

Claire Robinson, a spokesperson for the SCGOP, declined to answer specific questions about the effort to censure Rice, instead pointing to a statement party chair Drew McKissick issued following Rice’s vote to impeach Trump.

“Trying to impeach the President with just a week left in his term is nothing more than a political stunt,” McKissick said in a statement Jan. 13. “It will do nothing but harm the country and our Party. We completely disagree with this sham and to say I’m severely disappointed in Congressman Tom Rice would be an understatement.”

Why leaders want to censure Rice

The effort to censure Rice will come in the form of a resolution that members of the state GOP will vote on this week. First, a resolutions committee will meet virtually Wednesday evening to approve the measure, followed by an in-person meeting of the Executive Committee on Saturday. The Executive Committee is made up the chairs and executive committeemen from each of South Carolina’s 46 counties, plus several elected officials. If representatives from 23 counties are present to vote, the censure resolution will need a simple majority to pass.

The move to censure Rice follows a successful censure of three Arizona Republicans by that state’s GOP — Cindy McCain, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Gov. Doug Ducey. McCain and Flake were censured by the party for not supporting Trump during the 2020 election and Ducey was censured for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rice’s vote to impeach Trump has so angered Republicans in his home district in part because they believe the former president had little to do with the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that left five people dead. Democratic leadership in the House lead the effort to impeach Trump after they blamed him for inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol, where people broke in and vandalized the building. But Republican leadership in Rice’s district believe Trump’s direction that his supporters “walk down to the Capitol” meant they should protest peacefully, rather than break through police barricades and cause damage.

“(Trump) didn’t instigate anything, that’s not his style, he wouldn’t have done that,” Bassett Lumpkin said, noting that she believes anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter activists instigated the violence on Jan. 6. “At no point did he say, ‘Storm the Capitol, bang on the doors.’ He said patriotically and peacefully let your voices be heard, and he was within his rights to do that,” she said.

There has been no evidence that BLM or any other groups played a role in the riot.

Though local Republican leaders said they were pleased with Rice’s votes against certifying the electoral college tallies from Arizona and Pennsylvania, they said he was out of bounds to break with the party on Trump’s second impeachment. After he cast his vote to impeach the president, Rice explained in a statement that Trump’s failure to rebuke the rioters pushed him to break with the president who he supported “through thick and thin for four years.” In Horry County,which has swung heavily for Trump twice now, GOP leaders said that wasn’t a good excuse.

“They called it a gut punch, that’s basically how we all felt,” said Dreama Purdue, the chairwoman of the Horry County GOP and a supporter of the effort to censure Rice. “Effectively we’re telling him that everyone around the state is very, very unhappy with his vote, and he will be primaried in 2022.”

Rice likely to face 2022 challengers

Challengers to unseat Rice in 2022 are already coming forward. Shortly after Rice’s vote, Ken Richardson, the chairman of the Horry County School Board, told The Post & Courier that he was considering a run against him. And over the weekend, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride told The New York Times he was seeking to run against Rice, too.

Rice was first elected in 2012 after South Carolina’s 7th congressional district was redrawn following the 2010 Census. Since then, he’s emerged as a staunch conservative and advocate for major local infrastructure projects like extension of Interstate 73 and the Southern Evacuation Lifeline. He currently serves on the influential House Ways & Means Committee.

In addition to Rice, Sen. Lindsey Graham could also face a rebuke from Republicans here. Doug Rorie and Richard Zundt, the leaders of the Chesterfield GOP, both said they expect their local party to pass a resolution to censure Graham for not adequately supporting Trump following the Jan. 6 riot. Zundt said he would also like to see each county GOP vote to censure Rice, in addition to the censure by the state party. Rebukes at both the county and state levels, he argued, would send a stronger message.

“Basically I think he betrayed the state of South Carolina,” Zundt said. “He’s proven to be just a typical politicians who’s looking out for his own benefit.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show the proper spelling of Jeanne Bassett Lumpkin’s name.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 6:02 PM with the headline "‘Betrayed’: SC Republicans start push to censure Rep. Tom Rice over impeachment vote."