A South Carolina candidate’s campaign received a significant boost in popularity due to Donald Trump’s endorsement, an internal poll found.
Former state Rep. Russell Fry’s House campaign bumped in popularity among Republican voters by 30% after the former president gave his seal of approval to the campaign in February and then stumped for him at a rally Saturday. An internal campaign poll revealed that prior to Trump’s endorsement, incumbent Rep. Tom Rice had a narrow lead over Fry, which the challenger has since massively overtaken in recent weeks.
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“Survey results consistently confirm that Rice is in serious trouble,” the report read. “In large part due to Rice’s impeachment vote, a majority of voters do not support him and have found a conservative alternative in Russell Fry.”
HAS TRUMP’S SEAL LOST ITS APPEAL?
Internal poll memo released by @RussellFrySC’s campaign suggests their endorsement by former President Trump allowed them to overtake incumbent Tom Rice among likely Republican voters.
Roughly a quarter still undecided. pic.twitter.com/fGCIISzLiu
— Nick Reynolds (@IAmNickReynolds) March 16, 2022
Rice, first elected to the House in 2012, and Fry lead the GOP primary as the only candidates out of the field of six to break double digits in polling. The survey of over 600 likely GOP voters in South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District saw that following Trump’s Feb. 1 endorsement of Fry, 52% of respondents said they favored him for the June 14 primary, compared to 22% who said they would stick with Rice. Around a quarter of the voters surveyed were undecided, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
“Russell Fry is committed to fighting each and every day to end the Biden/Pelosi disaster in DC. Trump’s endorsement helps unify the Republican voters in the Seventh Congressional District,” campaign manager Phillip Habib told the Washington Examiner. “Tom Rice’s horrible year since his impeachment vote just keep getting worse, and Russell has had a pretty damn good couple of months. The poll numbers are positive, but not too surprising on the heels of the President’s rally, his endorsement, and our first TV spot that we are surging in the polls.”
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Rice was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump during the second attempt at ousting him from office.
“Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, the coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left, and who actually voted against me on Impeachment Hoax #2, must be thrown out of office ASAP — and we have just the man to do it!” Trump said in a statement. “America First champion Russell Fry has been a leading fighter on Election Integrity, is pro-life, pro-God, pro-Gun and, very importantly, pro-LOW Taxes.”
Rice’s campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
