With Congress in sight, Russell Fry takes final shot at Tom Rice in Statehouse goodbye

As Russell Fry prepares to end one legislative career for the likely start of another, the near-decade he spent in Columbia will serve as a model for his work in Congress.

“Everyone in this body can have real impacts in small ways and big ways in this state and in this country,” Fry, R-Surfside Beach, said on the S.C. House floor Tuesday. “Even D.C. can learn a thing or two from South Carolina.”

It’s traditional for outgoing lawmakers to give a farewell address. Fry spoke for roughly seven minutes surrounded by the rest of Horry County’s delegation. He got a standing ovation after stepping down from the well.

The 37-year-old attorney is a rising star inside the GOP. Two weeks ago, he defeated U.S. Rep. Tom Rice in a hotly contested 7th congressional district primary that hinged on Rice’s January 2021 vote to impeach former president Donald Trump based on his belief that Trump is to blame for stoking violence at the Capitol.

Fry won the former president’s endorsement earlier this year and appeared with him at a March 12 rally in Florence. He’ll face Conway’s Daryl Scott, a Democrat, in the Nov. 8 general election.

“My campaign for Congress has been a very good experience. It’s been exhausting,” Fry said. “I got to meet a lot of new people, I got to listen to their concerns about the future of this country, I got to to talk to people about the future. Got to fry some Rice, obviously, but my focus in Washington is going to be the same: That same commitment, that same work ethic, that same common sense conservative principles that have shaped this state.”

Voters first sent Fry to the Statehouse in 2015. Three years later, he was assigned to a bipartisan House Opioid Abuse Prevention Study Committee that would lead to millions being invested in prevention and education programs along with an 18-bill reform package.

“You can’t come up here by yourself and do things by yourself. You have to rely on people, work with people, establish relationships with people and go about the business of governing,” he said. “Your principles matter, and certainly persistence works too.”