“I made my next election a little more difficult than in the past,” he said Friday, urging supporters – a group he called “reasonable, reasonable people” and “good, steady Republicans” – to back him at Tuesday’s polls. . Two days ago, about 100 miles south, spokeswoman Nancy Mace, another Palmetto Republican who angered the former president, acknowledged her position as she knocked on doors in a magical morning. “I accept everything. I take the responsibility. “I do not back down,” she said, confident that voters in the Lowcountry area would be compassionate. “They know that ‘well, even if I disagree with her, at least she will tell me where she is,’” he added. Mrs Mays and Mr Rice are the two former president’s two targets for revenge on Tuesday. After a pro-Trump mob invaded the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was among those who blamed the president for the attack. Ms. Mays, just days before her first term, said Mr. Trump’s false rhetoric about “stealing” the presidential election had sparked riots and threatened to kill her. Mr Rice, whose northern border borders Ms Mays, immediately condemned Mr Trump and joined nine other Republicans (but not Ms Mays) who later voted in favor of his ouster. Now, in the face of the primary challenges advocated by the former president, the two have taken completely different approaches to political survival. Ms. Mays has gritted her teeth at criticizing Mr. Trump, seeking instead to discuss her conservative electoral record and her liberal streak in politics. Mr Rice, instead, has been digging in, defending his referral vote and further disapproving of Mr Trump in the process. In the event that they reject their main challengers on Tuesday, Ms. Mays and Mr. Rice will join a growing list of incumbents who have endured the wrath of the Democratic wing of Trump without ending their political careers. However, their conflicting strategies – a reflection of both their political instincts and the different policies of their regions – will offer a glimpse of how far a candidate can go in defying Mr Trump. Spokesman Tom Rice at a campaign event in Conway, SC last week. Credit … Madeline Gray for the New York Times In the eyes of her supporters, Ms. Mace’s previous comments are less specific than a referral vote. It has aimed to improve relations with sections of the pro-Trump Republican Party, spending almost every day in recent weeks campaigning to remind voters of its Republican kindness and not its unfiltered criticism of Mr. Trump. “Everyone knows I was unhappy that day,” he said on Jan. 6. “Everyone knows. “Everybody knows me.” Its county, which stretches from the left corners of Charleston to the conservative local Hilton Head clubs, has an electorate that includes far-right Republicans and Liberal Democrats. Ms. Mays has positioned herself not only as a conservative candidate, but also as a candidate who can defend the politically diverse constituency against a Democratic opponent in November. “It is and will always be a swing area,” he said. “I’m a conservative, but I also understand that I’re not just a conservative.” However, this is not a positive message for everyone in Lowcountry. Ted Huffman, owner of Bluffton BBQ, a restaurant in the heart of Bluffton’s downtown, said he supported Katie Arrington, the Trump-backed former state spokeswoman, in dealing with Mace. “What counted against Ms. Mays was not her feud with Mr. Trump but her relative absence from the restaurant section of the area,” Mr. Huffman said. “Katie Arrington, she’s here,” Huffman said, recalling the few times Mrs. Arrington visited the Bluffton BBQ. “I have never seen Nancy Mays.” During a rally in Summerville with Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, Mace gave a speech that contained a list of right-wing points: high inflation due to President Biden’s economic agenda, influx of immigrants to the southern border. support for military veterans. He did not mention Mr. Trump. Ms. Mays predicts a decisive primary victory over Ms. Arrington, who has placed her support for Trump at the heart of her campaign message. A victory in front of it, Ms said, would prove “the impossibility of any approval”. “Usually I do not give much weight to approvals because they do not matter,” he said. “He is really the candidate. He’s the person who votes for the people – that’s what matters. “ Speaking from her front porch in Moncks Corner, SC, Deidre Stechmeyer, a 42-year-old mother who lives at home, said she did not watch Mrs. Mace closely. But when asked about the comments of the MP who condemned the January 6 uprising, he changed. “This is something I agree with,” he said, adding that he supported Mrs Mays’s decision to certify the Electoral College vote – a move that some in the Republican Party have called a final betrayal of Mr. Trump. “There was so much conflict and uncertainty. I feel that it should have been certified “. Mr Rice’s vote of no confidence, on the other hand, shows a more recognizable turn. That’s part of why Ms. Mays has a comfortable lead in her race, according to recent opinion polls, and Mr. Rice faces far more controversy and is likely to run into a run-off with a Trump-backed state spokesman, Russell. Fry, after Tuesday. Mr Fry’s campaign has focused on Mr Rice’s vote to refer to her message, turning the vote into a referendum on Mr Rice’s five terms in Congress. “It’s more than just Donald Trump. “He is an incumbent MP who is losing the confidence of a very conservative district,” said Matt Moore, a former South Carolina Republican Party leader and campaign adviser to Mr Fry. However, Mr. Rice is betting on his ultra-conservative financial record and the former president’s once unforgiving support for a sixth term in one of Trump’s most pro-Trump congressional districts in South Carolina. A supporter of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally for Representative Nancy Mays on Sunday. Credit … Logan R. Cyrus for the New York Times In an interview, Rice noted the Republican Party’s shift to pushing social issues above politics – something he said was partly driven by the former party president’s wing, which helped redefine him. He also outlined what the Republican Party should represent: “less taxes, less government, more freedom, individual responsibility, the American dream,” he said. “If we are not for that, then, my God, I do not know what the Republican Party is.” The vote on his referral has also won the favor of some voters. Rick Giles, a Rice supporter in Conway, SC, said he admired Mr Rice for his vote. “He stood up to Trump when a lot of people didn’t,” Giles said. “He stood by his values. He did not go with the party line. I like this.” Conway is in the seventh county of the South Carolina Congress, where Mr. Rice faces many challengers in Tuesday’s primary. Credit … Madeline Gray for the New York Times Mr. Rice, in the northeast corner of South Carolina along the North Carolina border, is one of the state’s most conservative, favoring Republicans by nearly 30 points. And before the impeachment vote, Mr. Rice was one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, with a record of more than 90 percent of the vote that matched Trump’s stance. “This is not my electoral record. This is not my support for Trump. It has nothing to do with my ideology. “It’s not because this other one is good,” Rice said. “There is only one reason why he is doing this. And it’s just for revenge. “ Mr. Trump was less successful in the states that were at the root of his main challenger. In Georgia, two of his most prominent enemies, Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger, easily won the primary against dissidents backed by the former president. The two races for the House where he did not support the established coaches went to the second round. Mark Sanford, a former lawmaker who was defeated by Ms. Arrington in 2018 after Mr. Trump backed her main challenge, predicted that Ms. Mays would prevail. “I think it will be good,” he said, pointing to the growing number of transplants from the northern states that tend to favor candidates for settlement. “This is good news for Nancy, it’s not good for Katie.” However, he said, Tuesday’s result is unlikely to change the former president’s approach to politics. “It’s binary with Trump,” Sanford said. “You are not in the middle, in the middle – you are either inside or outside.
