Top SC Republican Russell Fry joins crowded race to oust Congressman Tom Rice
South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry issued a message Thursday for U.S. Rep. Tom Rice: It’s time to come home.
“When you vote against President Trump, which a sizable majority of your district voted for, it’s time to come home,” Fry said to a crowd of nearly 100 people at downtown Myrtle Beach’s Grand Strand Brewing.
“When you insist on doing your own thing in Washington, not listening to the voters that sent you to represent us, it’s time to come home, Tom.”
Fry, a 36-year-old Republican from Surfside Beach, formally announced his plans to challenge Rice for his 7th District seat in Congress next year. The race already has drawn nearly a dozen candidates looking to oust the five-term Rice whom they say didn’t adequately support former President Donald Trump.
Standing between a row of fermentation vessels and the long wooden bar, Fry drew cheers when he added, “And you know what? It’s time for a new generation of Republican leadership in this country.”
Though Rice voted with Trump 94% of the time throughout his term, he joined House Democrats and nine other Republicans to impeach Trump in January, deeply angering conservatives around his Eastern South Carolina district. In response, the Republican Party in South Carolina voted to censure Rice just weeks after his vote.
On Jan. 6, a violent mob of Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol, seeking to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. Ultimately five people died during and shortly after the attack.
In interviews and at town hall events around Rice’s district, the congressman has argued that Trump violated the Constitution by encouraging his supporters to violently disrupt Congress’ duty to certify the 2020 election. Rice has said he studied Trump’s statements and actions that day and grew upset when he found Trump criticizing former Vice President Mike Pence and doing little to discourage his supporters. He has said he felt it was his Constitutional duty to rebuke Trump for interfering with a Congressional duty.
But that vote turned many conservatives across the 7th District against Rice, and candidates have lined up to oust him from his seat. That includes Christian speaker and anti-communism activist Barbara Arthur; Horry County Board of Education Chairman Ken Richardson; former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride; and conservative media personality Graham Allen.
Why Fry is running
Fry first said he would explore a run against Rice in late January, arguing that Rice’s vote “broke the trust” of his constituents, who overwhelmingly support Trump and his policies.
Thursday, he said the 7th District needs a representative who is dedicated to conservative causes and a conservative vision for the country, invoking former President Ronald Reagan.
“Perhaps most importantly, (the district needs) someone who appreciates Ronald Reagan’s ‘Shining City on a Hill,’ that optimism,” Fry said. “It’s time to send people to Washington with that same optimism, because our country is worth fighting for.”
In his roughly 15-minute speech to supporters, Fry said he would push for stricter access to abortions, expanding the rights of gun owners and strengthening security at the United States southern border. He said he would resist efforts by Democrats to make electric vehicles the standard in the country, rather than gasoline-powered ones, as President Joe Biden is aiming to do.
Saying the United States is “under attack” by liberal forces, Fry said he wants to push the 7th District in a more conservative direction.
“This campaign is about restoring trust in your elected officials,” he said. “This campaign is also about an eye to that future, for fighting for our beliefs, fighting for our tomorrow, and fighting for our Republic.”
In both 2016 and 2020, voters in the 7th Congressional District gave Trump 58% of the vote, while giving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 39% and President Joe Biden 40%, respectively.
Fry said he decided to challenge Rice in part because he heard from voters around the district who said they wanted a representative in Congress they could trust to continue Trump’s agenda and address local issues.
“People within the district, and outside really, have a passion for believing in their government, believing in their representative again, they’re certainly upset,” Fry said in an interview Wednesday with The State and The Sun News. “But there’s a great bit of enthusiasm for the future.”
In his race, Fry is running in a lane somewhere between Trump and Rice. While trying to differentiate himself from Rice, he also said he plans to continue many of Rice’s key initiatives, such as constructing Interstate 73. He praised some of Rice’s key accomplishments, like opening the Dillon Inland Port.
In addition to supporting traditional conservative causes like broadening gun-ownership rights and curbing abortion, Fry said he’d also work to address flooding issues throughout the Pee Dee and Grand Strand regions and would work to bring new economic opportunities to the region.
Fry’s background in SC
Fry, an attorney who works with the firm Coastal Law, has risen quickly through the Republican ranks in South Carolina during his political career. He first held leadership positions with the Grand Strand Young Republicans and then the South Carolina Republican Party as an executive committee member, before winning a special election against Horry County Council member Tyler Servant and joining the state House in 2015.
In the House, Fry sits on the House Judiciary Committee, a powerful panel of mostly lawyers, which oversees the court system in South Carolina, shape laws that affect policing and help draw political district lines every decade. In 2018, Fry was named chief majority whip for the House Republican Caucus, charged with building consensus around legislation and the party’s priorities.
Through his time in the Legislature, Fry said he’s pushed for conservative policies regarding gun ownership and abortion, for example.
He was a proponent of the open carry with permit gun legislation — which he called “the greatest Second Amendment advancement in South Carolina in nearly 25 years” — and helped push forward a bill that bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, since stalled in court. He also said he’s “led on election integrity, school choice, certainly the opioid epidemic and human trafficking.” Fry also sat on the House’s Opioid Abuse Prevention Study Committee.
At the same time, Fry has also voiced support for local economic and infrastructure projects like Interstate 73, the Southern leg of which would connect Interstate 95 to Highway 22 in the Myrtle Beach area. Some local lawmakers and the Chamber of Commerce support the project, saying it will bring new industries and jobs to an area that needs to diversify its economy beyond construction, tourism and farming.
Rice in recent months has said he’s been working to secure federal funding for the major roadway, in either Biden’s infrastructure package or his American Rescue Plan.
On Wednesday, Fry said he’d work in Congress to create “regulatory environment” to promote business and industry growth.
“In many ways, both state and federal regulatory environments really need to be robust, and in promote this area, because we do have a lot to offer,” he said.
Facing 7th District competition
As he enters the race, Fry faces an initial uphill challenge catching up to other candidates, some of whom have been campaigning and fundraising for months.
Rice enters his re-election campaign with a healthy war chest of more than $1 million, more than his challengers so far.
Allen, for example, announced his race on Fox News’ morning show “Fox & Friends” and raised more than $500,000 in six weeks, though those contributions largely came from outside the district. Richardson, too, has raised thousands of dollars.
In choosing to run for Congress, Fry setting up a potentially competitive race for his state House seat that represents the South end of Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach.
Though Fry may support similar policies as Rice, he plans to focus on Rice’s votes against Trump to attract voters. At his announcement Thursday, he also chastised Rice for his vote to support a commission to study the events of Jan. 6, saying the country already knew what happened that day.
“We know what they’re going to do. President Trump, according to them and their findings, probably, is a terrible human being and us, as conservatives, are equally as potent. And Tom Rice voted to let that happen,” Fry told his supporters.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Top SC Republican Russell Fry joins crowded race to oust Congressman Tom Rice."
