By Paul Gable
Ken Richardson has prepared for the final five-month push to the Republican Primary where he expects to unseat Tom Rice for the nomination for the SC 7th Congressional District.
Since announcing his candidacy in February 2021, Richardson has spent the last year speaking throughout the district to over 100 groups of Republican voters.
“I wanted to spend one year talking to voters about what they think are the important issues facing the 7th Congressional District,” said Richardson. “The other candidates in the race were all about raising money. If representing the people of the 7th Congressional District was only about money, I would just go write a check.”
After a career as a successful businessman, Richardson owned the only Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac dealership under one roof in the United States, Richardson, after selling his dealership, entered politics in 2018 winning the Horry County School Board Chairman race.
From the beginning, being school board chairman was only the first stop for Richardson.
“I always had challenging Tom Rice in the 7th Congressional District in my sights,” Richardson said. “Initially I had targeted 2024 as the year, but, when Rice voted to impeach President Donald Trump on January 13, 2021, I moved my timetable up by two years.”
The SC 7th Congressional District is one of the most pro-Trump Congressional Districts in the nation. In his talks to voters over the past year, Richardson has found Rice’s vote to impeach the president is foremost in their minds.
“Tom Rice and his campaign manager both said over time the people would forget about Rice’s vote to impeach President Donald Trump,” Richardson said. “What I have found over the past year is not only have the voters not forgotten that vote, they also have not forgiven Rice for casting it.”
While not making fundraising a primary goal during his year of meeting the voters of the district, Richardson has raised over $250,000 in donations to his campaign, despite effectively suspending fundraising in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“I wanted to respect the holidays. They are a time for people to spend time and money with their families not on political campaigns,” Richardson said.
However, with the turn of the New Year, Richardson launched his formal fundraising strategy. On January 17, 2022, Richardson began making personal solicitation calls to potential donors in the 7th Congressional District. In the first five days of making calls, Richardson raised over $125,000 from individual donors. No PACs or other bundled money sources have been solicited to date.
Richardson also found a recurring theme from the people he spoke to about donating to his campaign.
“In over 80 percent of the phone calls I have made, the people have wanted to talk about Rice’s vote to impeach the president,” Richardson said. “It seems the closer we get to the primary election the madder people are getting about Rice’s vote.”
With the increased focus on fundraising while continuing personal contact with voters throughout the 7th Congressional District, Richardson believes he will defeat Rice in the June 2022 primary for the Republican nomination for the SC 7th Congressional District.
“We need a true conservative, Pro-America representative in Congress,” Richardson said. “It’s time to make the 7th Congressional District Great Again. We need a new Congressman, I’m your guy.”
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