WaPo: “Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump in January 2021, Rep. Tom Rice seemed to be in the deepest political peril.
The Myrtle Beach lawyer with a country club demeanor and a Southern drawl sailed into reelection four times with a conservative voting record, even winning by 24 points in 2020. But his impeachment vote was roundly jeered in his ruby-red district on the South Carolina coast. His Facebook was inundated with thousands of vitriolic messages and still is. Friendships frayed, he said. Multiple challengers jumped in the race against him, fueled by Trump’s call for his ouster. His doom was widely predicted.
But Rice has a fighting chance to keep his seat, or at least make it to a runoff against a Trump-backed challenger, according to South Carolina political observers and people who have watched the race closely.”