S.C. Rep. Tom Rice, Who Voted to Impeach Trump in Wake of Jan. 6, Loses Reelection Bid After 5 Terms in Office

Rice was one of 10 Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching former President Donald Trump following the 2021 Capitol riots

Tom Rice. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty

South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice — one of 10 Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots — has lost reelection after five terms in office. The Associated Press reports Rice lost his election to South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry, who was endorsed by Trump.

In an earlier interview with NPR, Rice acknowledged that voting in favor of impeaching Trump could cost him his job.

"If we are going to have a scenario where the president can try to intimidate Congress into doing what he wants, well shoot, we might as well have a monarchy," Rice told the outlet in February.

Trump, meanwhile, lambasted the congressman for his vote to impeach, calling him a "coward," according to NPR.

"Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office ASAP," Trump said in a statement in February.

Rice, who was censured by his state's Republican Party following his impeachment vote, told NPR he remembers the fear and chaos of Jan. 6, when Trump's supporters breached the Capitol in a deadly scene.

"And I guess if the consequences are that the people think what happened is OK, then I guess, you know, I'm not that guy," Rice told NPR.

Elsewhere in South Carolina, Rep. Nancy Mace — another Republican who voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Capitol riots — won her election.

Mace, who initially supported Trump after his first run for the presidency, staunchly criticized him in the wake of the Capitol riots.

Trump-endorsed candidates have seen mixed results in recent primary elections. In three high-profile races in Georgia, for instance, contenders who refused to help Trump overturn Georgia's election results in 2020 easily won.

Gov. Brian Kemp — a top target of Trump — cruised to victory despite Trump's endorsement of his opponent, winning every county and the state as a whole by a wide margin, with 73 percent of the vote.

"Even in the middle of a tough primary, conservatives across our state didn't listen to the noise. They didn't get distracted," Kemp told supporters after his win last month.

Also in Georgia, the state's Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger, whose phone call with Trump in Jan. 2021 showed the lengths the president was willing to go for reelection, won 52 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff with his closest competitor.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr — who backed Kemp and Raffensperger's decision to certify the results of the 2020 election after investigations found there was no evidence of fraud — also coasted to victory in his Republican primary, with nearly 74 percent of the vote.

Elsewhere in the state, some of Trump's most vocal allies succeeded, however. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, won the Republican primary in her Georgia district, putting her on the path to be reelected to the U.S. House of Representatives.