Trump-backed Republican Russel Fry wins SC 7th House seat
Nov 8, 2022, 9:03 PM | Updated: 11:02 pm
FILE - Dr. Annie Andrews, Democratic candidate for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, is seen in this file photograph taken Oct. 19, 2022 in Charleston, S.C. (Brad Nettles/The Post And Courier via AP, File)
(Brad Nettles/The Post And Courier via AP, File)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican Russel Fry, who ousted veteran Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina in a primary with former President Donald Trump’s backing, handily won the seat Tuesday.
Fry, a state representative, beat Democratic challenger Daryl Scott for the state’s 7th House seat. The five-term incumbent Rice was the first of the 10 House Republicans to lose a reelection bid after voting to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots.
The election outcome marks the first time in 10 years that voters in the red Myrtle Beach congressional district will send a new elected official to Washington. At his election night watch party, Fry declared he would prioritize fighting inflation and securing the border upon taking office.
Fry’s win came as his GOP counterparts across the country sought to flip key seats in a hard-fought national struggle between Democrats and Republicans for control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I’m going to join a new wave of conservative congressmen who are going to walk up the Capitol steps, look (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi in the eye — and what are we going to say to her?” Fry asked the crowd. “You are fired!”
In another competitive race, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace was seeking Tuesday to hang on to her Charleston-area U.S. House seat. Control of that South Carolina district has seesawed in recent years between Democrats and the GOP.
The freshman congresswoman Mace was confronting Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who supports access to abortions in the red state and greater restrictions on guns in a bid to stop waves of U.S. shooting violence.
South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District has been on a pendulum ride since 2018. Democrat Joe Cunningham, who ran unsuccessfully for governor on Tuesday, won the 1st District seat that year before losing to Mace in the ensuing election.
Also Tuesday, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and the state’s lone congressional Democrat, won his sixteenth term. He had faced Republican attorney Duke Buckner in the 6th District.
In the 2nd District, Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson — who has held onto his seat since 2001 — won reelection against Democratic challenger Judd Larkins.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan was running unopposed for a seventh term serving the 3rd District.
In the 4th District, Republican U.S. Rep. William Tennis faced Independent write-in candidate Lee Turner after the Democratic nominee withdrew.
In the 5th District, Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman defeated Democrat Evangeline Hundley, a real estate agent.
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