Who will Trump endorse in Myrtle Beach’s congressional race? Candidates are vying for his nod.
If one thing’s certain in the race for South Carolina’s 7th Congressional seat, it’s that former president Donald Trump won’t endorse incumbent Rep. Tom Rice.
“That ship has obviously sailed and left port a long time ago,” Walter Whetsell, Rice’s campaign manager, told The Sun News on Monday.
Why?
Because a year ago, on Jan. 13, Rice voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Over the 13 months since that vote, Rice has said he felt Trump violated the Constitution by encouraging supporters to interrupt an official duty of Congress, and that his vote held Trump accountable. At town halls and other events, Rice argued he supports Trump’s policy ideas.
But that vote put a target on Rice’s back.
“Any interest from good and SMART America First Republican Patriots to run primary campaigns against Representatives Tom Rice (and others)?” Trump asked in a November statement. “You will have my backing!”
Rice’s challengers have zeroed in on that pledge and believe with his endorsement comes a shot at unseating Rice.
That leaves only the million-dollar question: who will Trump endorse?
The field of challengers in this year’s June primary grew crowded shortly after Rice’s impeachment vote.
State Rep. Russell Fry (R-Surfside Beach), school board chairman Ken Richardson, Florence doctor Garrett Barton and several others have joined the race, each arguing that they would support Trump where Rice did not.
That field narrowed somewhat Friday when conservative media personality Graham Allen announced he was dropping out of the race. Allen works with Turning Point USA — a well-funded and highly-connected group that publishes media and pushes conservative ideas on college campuses. Allen joined the race as a Trump-supporter who believed strongly in the “America First” message. Though he lived in Anderson and didn’t have ties to the district, Allen positioned himself as someone who could win Trump’s backing, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars after launching his campaign on Fox News last year.
In a Facebook post Saturday, Allen indicated he had a phone conversation with Trump Friday prior to dropping out. Trump released his own statement praising Allen shortly after, raising questions about the former president’s possible endorsement.
Some Horry County Republicans think a Trump endorsement could come sooner rather than later.
Others said Trump will wait until April, after the candidate filing deadline.
“I don’t think the Trump Organization will do any kind of endorsement for anyone until after the filing period,” said Jerry Rovner, head of the GOP for South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District. “It would be very embarrassing ... to endorse someone who left.”
Sources inside some of the district’s top-fundraising campaigns with ties to the Trump orbit told The Sun News they are trying to figure out who he might endorse and when.
“Yes, we’re working with some people and talking with some people but we don’t know, to be honest with you,” Donald Smith, a Conway-based political consultant who’s running Richardson’s campaign, said. “We would love to have it, anybody would.”
Barton, the Florence-based doctor, said that he, too, has connections to Trump and is working to secure an endorsement. A consulting firm that produced a video for his campaign, he said, is tied to Bill Stepien, Trump’s two-time campaign manager.
“We’re going to use every angle we can to try to get his attention, especially since we’re a campaign that came out of nowhere,” Barton said, referring to the September launch of his campaign. “President Trump is going to endorse whoever he feels is the best candidate.”
Fry, in a statement Monday, said he, too, was seeking Trump’s blessing.
“I would be honored to receive President Trump’s endorsement,” Fry said.
What is Trump looking for in a candidate?
Political observers across the Grand Strand said Trump is likely looking for a replacement for Rice who will be loyal to both him personally and his policies. Trump would also likely want someone who can fundraise effectively and is well-liked by the voters in the district.
“I think that personally he’s looking for someone with integrity, someone who’s not going to cave to Democrats and who’s going to do right by their constituents,” said Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, the Horry County GOP’s liaison to the SC Republican Party.
Rovner, the 7th district GOP leader, said Trump will likely endorse someone who knows “what’s going on. And they have to be strong nationally. They have to come out swinging and have a good agenda.”
Smith said Trump will likely be looking for a candidate who supports both his political agenda and can also raise funds. He argued that Richardson may have the most purchase among Trump supporters across the district.
“The MAGA movement, those people, I think they would rally behind Ken,” Smith said.
For his part, Whetsell said Trump will primarily look for little else than “loyalty to him and his style and his substance. One-hundred percent unadulterated loyalty to him as a person.”
Vying for Trump’s endorsement intensifies
In an escalation of the competition for the endorsement, Richardson over the weekend issued a challenge to the other candidates, saying each should say publicly whether they believe the 2020 presidential election was fair or fraudulent.
Richardson said he believes the election was fraudulent and that Trump was the true winner.
No evidence has emerged to date to support that claim.
Fry, seemingly answering the challenge in a Facebook video posted Sunday evening, called the 2020 election “rigged.”
Smith on Monday argued that those Rice challengers who have a clear pro-Trump stance on the 2020 election and the events of January 6th could curry favor with the former president.
While it’s not yet clear who Trump will back in the race, Rice’s field of challengers will likely narrow if Trump makes an endorsement.
Rovner argued that if multiple candidates stay in the race, Rice could win re-election.
In his statement announcing he was ending his race, Allen called for a “unified front” against Rice.
Diaz said she believes funding will pour into the candidate Trump backs, which could prove key in the primary.
For Rice’s part, he’s hoping to stay in office by sticking to issues that he and Trump support, Whetsell said. He believes that gives Rice an advantage.
“(Rice’s challengers) don’t have a choice. They are going to have to swear a loyalty on the personality and on the style and even the behavior (of Trump),” he said.
“Issues have mattered historically, and the ironies of all ironies is the proven consistent record of support that Tom Rice gave to the issues.
“(Trump) had no better friend in South Carolina than Tom Rice.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Who will Trump endorse in Myrtle Beach’s congressional race? Candidates are vying for his nod.."
