About
Tom Rice (R-S.C.) has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013, representing South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District. In June 2022, after speaking candidly about Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, he became the first of 10 congressional Republicans who voted to impeach the former president to lose his reelection bid to a Trump-backed challenger in the primary.
Having lived in the state for most of his life, Rice earned both a master’s degree in accounting and a juris doctor from the University of South Carolina. Prior to holding elected office, he worked at the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte & Touche in Charlotte and then specialized in tax law at the Van Osdell Law Firm in Myrtle Beach before establishing his own practice in the same city in 1997.
January 6, 2021
- Although Rice followed the GOP playbook in objecting to the certification of Biden’s 2020 Electoral College win, he later came to regret his position. “In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify,” he reflected. “But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So yeah, I regret my vote to object.”
- When Rice voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection, he was initially censured by the South Carolina GOP and then voted out of office in the 2022 GOP primary. During the primary campaign, he called Trump a “would-be tyrant.”
- When Rice voted in favor of establishing a House committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, he released a statement that read: “As members of Congress, we took an oath to defend our democracy. I believe we must fully know the facts and causes of the event in order to secure our Capitol and ensure our democracy remains intact for future generations.”
The Big Lie
- On Nov. 11, 2020, Rice and the entire South Carolina congressional delegation participated in a news conference denouncing voter fraud and irregularities in the 2020 presidential election. “We have to do whatever it takes to make sure this process was equitable in this last election and will be equitable moving forward,” he said.
- On Dec. 10, 2020, Rice signed an amicus brief in a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the results of the presidential election in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.