Rep. Rice censured by South Carolina GOP for voting to impeach Trump,
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Republicans on Saturday issued a formal censure to Rep. Tom Rice to show disapproval over his vote in support of the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Rice was among 10 GOP representatives who joined Democrats on Jan. 13 in voting to impeach Mr. Trump for his role in the violence a week earlier at the U.S. Capitol. A Senate trial is set to start Feb. 9.
With two abstentions, Saturday’s vote was 43-0. In a statement afterward, Mr. Rice vowed to help the Republican Party where he could but said he felt some in the GOP “have forgotten their very own creed, which states, ‘I will never cower before any master, save my God.’ ”
A day after his vote, Mr. Rice — who represents South Carolina’s 7th District, an area that voted heavily for Mr. Trump — told The Associated Press “it hurts my heart” to have gone against the president, but he decided to back impeachment after seeing what he characterized as Mr. Trump’s inaction during the Capitol Hill riot.
State party-level censures aren’t common in South Carolina. The GOP in 2009 issued one to then Gov. Mark Sanford after he fled the state for five days to visit a lover in Argentina. In 2009 and 2010, several county-level Republican parties censured Sen. Lindsey Graham for his willingness to work on bipartisan deals, with one county deriding Mr. Graham’s “condescending attitude” to the party’s grassroots organizers.
The censure is a symbolic expression of disapproval that some warn could have electoral consequences for Mr. Rice, who has represented the 7th District since its creation in 2012. Long a reliable backer of Mr. Trump’s policies, Mr. Rice campaigned with the president and, according to Five Thirty Eight, voted 94% of the time in favor of Trump-backed legislation — the highest percentage among South Carolina’s current delegation.
In his only primary since first elected in 2012, Mr. Rice won with 84% of the vote. He’s been re-elected each time with at least 56% of votes cast. Now, Mr. Rice is all but sure to face at least a handful of primary challengers, with one formally creating an exploratory committee this past week.