“A South Carolina state lawmaker is mounting a primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, saying the five-term Republican broke his constituents’ trust by voting to impeach former President Donald Trump earlier this year. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, state Rep. Russell Fry said that he will be a candidate for Congress, running against Rice, who, up until his surprise vote in January, had always been a consistent supporter of the former president, representing an area that voted heavily for Trump in both presidential elections. ‘He campaigned with President Trump and worked with President Trump and was always willing to use President Trump’s name for his reelection purposes, but he broke that trust,’ Fry told AP.”

“‘I think the people of the Grand Strand and the Pee Dee deserve someone they can trust again, and I think I’m that person,’ he added. Rice was among 10 GOP representatives who joined Democrats on Jan. 13 in voting to impeach Trump for his role in the violence a week earlier at the U.S. Capitol. Trump was not convicted during a subsequent Senate trial. A day after his vote, Rice told AP ‘it hurts my heart’ to have gone against the president, but he decided to back impeachment after seeing what he characterized as Trump’s inaction during the Capitol Hill riot. Since then, Republicans in his district and across the state have declared their displeasure with Rice, who has represented the district since its creation in 2012. The South Carolina GOP formally censured him to show disapproval over his vote, a step also taken by other party committees across the country to punish many of the 10 House Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment” – AP.