In South Carolina, Tests for Trumpism on Primary Ballots

Two GOP House primary elections in South Carolina Tuesday will serve as referenda on President Trump and his rhetoric, testing whether the 2020 election retains importance for Republican voters.Representatives Nancy Mace and Tom Rice face uphill battles in their re-election bids after refusing to echo Mr. Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud. Mr. Trump has endorsed primary challengers to Ms. Mace and Mr. Rice.Ms. Mace voted to certify the results of the 2020 election, while Mr. Rice has expressed regret for his vote against it, telling Politico that “in retrospect” he feels he should have voted to certify and that Mr. Trump “was responsible for the attack on the Capitol” on January 6, 2021. Mr. Rice also voted to impeach the former president and establish an investigative committee on the riot.Mr. Trump endorsed a state representative, Katie Arrington, in her bid to unseat Ms. Mace. Mrs. Arrington previously made an unsuccessful run for the seat in 2018. Mr. Trump also endorsed another state representative, Russell Fry, against Mr. Rice. Both candidates appear to mirror some of Mr. Trump’s claims disputing the election’s legitimacy.Mrs. Arrington said in an interview with a South Carolina publication, the State, that President Biden is “legally the president of the United States because people like Nancy Mace didn’t have a backbone, and they certified the election.”. Mr. Fry has never directly commented on the issue, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun, but has more broadly emphasized “election integrity” during his campaign. He has appeared at events alongside figures such as the chief executive of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, a close political ally of Mr. Trump who has repeatedly denied the election’s legitimacy.In a November 2021 Monmouth poll, 73 percent of the Republicans surveyed said they believed there was “widespread voter fraud” in 2020. Whether these numbers are reflective of the current state of the Republican Party may be illustrated by Tuesday’s primary results.“It’s a bellwether to see: What’s the future of Trump?” a political science professor at the College of Charleston, Gibbs Knotts, said of Ms. Mace’s race, according to the Huffington Post. “It’s a good indicator to see how much sway he has now that he’s out of office for a couple years.”Mr. Trump’s election fraud claims aren’t the only issues driving the primary races in South Carolina — there are also carry local implications, according to Ms. Mace’s campaign manager, J. Austin McCubbin. “Politics are local,” Mr. McCubbin told the Sun via e-mail, noting that the race between Ms. Mace and Mrs. Arrington “is going to be a decision about two very different records.” The policy positions of Ms. Mace and Mr. Rice have also been called into question.Ms. Mace introduced the States Reform Act, a bill that would have removed marijuana from the federal government’s list of controlled substances, in November 2021, and co-sponsored the Fairness for All Act, which would have expanded provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, in March 2021.“Nancy Mace is proud to be moderate,” Mrs. Arrington tweeted Sunday, “we don’t need someone who votes with” Representative Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat of New York, “45% of the time.”Mr. McCubbin refuted Mrs. Arrington’s claims, noting her own “record of voting for gas tax increases that are causing Lowcountry voters pain at the pump amidst record gas prices, as well as being the first Republican to lose this seat in 40 years.”Meanwhile, Mr. Fry said that for years, Mr. Rice “talked conservative at home, but as soon as he got back to Washington and crawled in the swamp, he sided with Nancy Pelosi,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Mr. Fry also implied that he would vote to the right of Mr. Rice if elected to Congress.“Above all, we need leaders who can be counted on to stand with proven conservative leaders like Donald Trump.”The winners of the two primaries in the solidly Republican congressional districts are expected to win their general elections, according to the Cook Political Report.

In South Carolina, Tests for Trumpism on Primary Ballots

In South Carolina, Tests for Trumpism on Primary Ballots

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