Former President Donald Trump mapped out his strategy for the South Carolina Republican Party’s role toward winning in midterm elections during his “Save America” rally in Florence, South Carolina.
“Eight months from now, the people of South Carolina are going to vote to fire the radical Democrats,” Trump said on March 12. “You’re going to elect an incredible slate of true America-first Republicans. You’re going to reelect your governor, Henry McMaster, and together, we’re going to end Nancy Pelosi’s political career once and for all.”
Trump criticized President Joe Biden, saying the nation “has watched in horror as everything that Joe Biden touches turns into a calamity and a total disaster.”
“It’s one train wreck after the another,” said Trump, who won South Carolina by 55 percent in the 2020 general election.
Trump said that in 2020, all but two of the 122 candidates that he endorsed in congressional primaries won their elections.
He’s now endorsing Republican state Rep. Russell Fry to replace U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), who was among the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on the allegation that he had provoked the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Right here in the 7th Congressional District, Tom Rice, a disaster,” Trump said. “He’s respected by no one. He’s laughed at in Washington. He was never thought highly of in Washington.”
“I took one vote he didn’t like and now he’s chosen to support a yes man candidate who has and will bow to anything he says, no matter what,” Rice said.
Trump then turned his criticism to Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who also voted to impeach Trump on the allegation that Trump was somehow responsible for Jan. 6.
“In the 1st Congressional District you have another horrendous RINO known as crazy Nancy Mace,” Trump said, using the acronym for ”Republican in Name Only.”
In 2020, Mace had mounted a bid for the GOP nomination in the 1st Congressional District. With Trump and Mace on good terms at the time, he had thrown his support behind her.
“Two years ago, she begged for my endorsement and I pledged—and she pledged—to be America first all the way. Instead, the first thing Nancy Mace did when she got to Washington was start attacking Republicans and hold a fundraiser for wacky Liz Cheney.”
Mace’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment on Trump’s statements.
During his speech, Trump endorsed Mace’s Republican primary challenger Katie Arrington.
In 2018, Arrington defeated longtime congressman and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, winning the Republican nomination to challenge former Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) in the state’s 1st Congressional District, which comprises Charleston and its surroundings. The primary win came after a public disagreement between Sanford and Trump.
However, Arrington was defeated by Cunningham in the general election by a 1.4 point margin.
Local Effects
Because South Carolina has a Republican-led House and Senate, what some have described as a potential “red wave” of Republican victories may be more of a ripple in the state; meanwhile, a few local municipal officials, such as Dorchester County Councilwoman Harriet Holman, have switched to Republican from Democrat. She was appointed to fill a vacated seat on the council by Gov. Henry McMaster in 2018 and was reelected in 2019.Holman, who retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2010, told The Epoch Times that upon review of her values, she’s always aligned with those of the Republican Party when it comes to pro-life and economic principles, as well as supporting—instead of defunding—the police and military.
“When I look back, I’ve really been upholding conservative values despite my Democratic ticket, so, to me, the right thing to do was to switch to Republican,” Holman said.
‘Political Evolution’
State Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick told The Epoch Times that the local switches aren’t what political scientists would describe as political realignment, but instead “a creeping political evolution.”“It started at the top of the ticket in a lot of these rural counties and is gradually evolving its way down the ticket,” McKissick said. “They would vote Republican for president and maybe federal offices, but then Democrat the rest of the way down. Eventually, they are voting Republican as well but they’re still voting Democrat for courthouse jobs and city council before they break ties and go straight ticket.”
McKissick said the first time Republicans beat Democrats in South Carolina with straight-ticket voting was in 2016 by 2.5 points. In 2018, Republicans beat Democrats with straight-ticket voting by 8.5 points, he said, and in 2020, that grew to 17 points.
“That is a lot of rural, culturally conservative Democrats and independents who had been splitting their ticket now walking into the ballot box and pressing that Republican button and walking out,” McKissick said.
The trend of voting Republican grew out from urban to suburban areas and has now moved into rural areas.
“It really got on steroids since Donald Trump came on the scene in 2015,” he said. “I got elected in May 2017, and I saw at least four counties out of 46 at the time when we didn’t even have a county party chair.”
However, he said, by 2019, there was a major turnout for county party chairs.
No ‘Proclamation From the Gods’
South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson told The Epoch Times that it would be disingenuous to hold Holman and others as an example of a growing trend in switching parties, for two reasons.“Down in Dorchester, there was a swing district, and they drew a line and made every single district a firm Republican district,” he said. “Well, I think that the gerrymandering in that circumstance will be thrown out by the courts. The fact is, she switched parties because there are seven Republican districts that have been drawn through reapportionment.”
In addition, he asserted that Holman had a debt to pay to McMaster because he had initially appointed her to the seat.
“So there’s no shocker here,” Robertson said. “This isn’t a great proclamation from the gods.”
Robertson said the switches from Republican to Democrat have been too “far and few between,” and that Holman herself “will be lucky to hold on to any seat she runs for” in the midterms.
The South Carolina primary is on June 14, with the primary runoff on June 28.
