He’s running for another term in office….
A Republican Conservative that hasn’t drank the Kool-Aid…..
Will he make it?
“It was very clear to me, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I didn’t take an oath to defend Donald Trump. What he did was a frontal assault on the Constitution,” he said over coffee at Sunshine Pancake House in Loris, S.C., on Wednesday.
Now that vote threatens to end his career as he faces several potential primary opponents who strongly support the former president. And that race will have a broader meaning for his party, serving as a test case for whether a solidly conservative lawmaker, long popular in his district and loyal to the party, can be cast out by GOP voters for the lone sin of crossing Trump.
“What do you call somebody who votes with Trump 99 percent of the time? A traitor,” Rice said with a chuckle recalling a joke he had read several months ago.
Punchline or prophecy? His electoral fate will probably provide an answer….
image….Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) sits at Sunshine Pancake House in Loris, S.C., on Wednesday. Rice defends his decision to be one of only 10 Republican House members to vote to impeach former president Donald Trump. (Madeline Gray for The Washington Post)
Rices advantage?He has a bunch of opponents.
Rices disadvantage? SC has a runoff provision if no one gets over 50%.
The Unknown? Will the runner up be one of the kookier of the kooks running against him?
Right now? Rice is a underdog to survive
Well?
The media will be rooting for Tom Rice to make a good anti-Trump story….