S.C. GOP censures Rep. Rice for impeachment vote

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Republicans on Saturday issued a formal censure to U.S. Rep. Tom Rice to show disapproval over his vote in support of the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump.

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. A Senate trial is expected in February.

With two abstentions, Saturday’s vote was 43-0. In a statement afterward, 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, Rice — who represents South Carolina’s 7th District, an area that voted heavily for 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 Trump’s inaction during the Capitol Hill riot.

Party committees across the country have moved to punish many of those 10 House Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment. His hold on state parties reflects the ex-president’s continued popularity with the base and the work his political operation has done to plant loyalists in the typically obscure local GOP apparatus.

The censure is a symbolic expression of disapproval that some warn could have electoral consequences for Rice, who has represented the 7th District since its creation in 2012.

Tom Rice