Tom Rice
Tom Rice | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 7th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | None (District Re-established after 2010 Census) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hugh Thompson 'Tom' Rice Jr. August 4, 1957 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Wrenzie Rice |
| Residence | Myrtle Beach |
| Education | B.S. MA in Accounting, Juris Doctor (J.D) |
| Alma mater | University of South Carolina |
| Profession | Businessman, Lawyer |
| Website | Website Title |
Hugh Thompson 'Tom' Rice Jr. (born August 4, 1957) is the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 7th congressional district. He is the current Horry County Council Chair and will officially leave his position as Horry County Council Chairman on December 31 as he will be sworn in as the 7th District's new congressman on January 3, 2013. The filing period for people interested in running for Rice's old seat will begin in mid-January and will be only open for 10 days and as of now there is nobody is officially running for the seat, but there are some who would like to be considered. Al Allen who is the currently the council vice chair will serve as chair through the month of January until a new Vice Chair is chosen. The filling period for the county council chair seat will begin on January, 18, 2013 and last for 10 days followed by the primary on March 12,2013 then a general election April 30th, 2013. [1]
He was elected in November 2012 to the 113th Congress. Rice is also a member of the freshman class chosen to sit at the House Republican leadership table. Rice is a conservative Republican who believes in carefully spending the public’s money and to not spending more than absolutely necessary. He supports the right to life movement and thinks U.S. government has strayed from tenets of the Constitution. [2]
Early life, education, and business career
Rice was born in Charleston on August 4, 1957 and after his parents got divorced when he was 4, Rice and his brother Clay along with their mother moved to Myrtle Beach.
Rice’s mother was a teacher at first she taught the second grade, then she taught the fifth grade and finally special education, so there wasn’t an excess of money in the home. He remembers the small house that his mom rented off Oak Street when they first moved to Myrtle Beach.
Rice’s first job was a busboy at the Reef Restaurant when he was only 12 and at the age of 14 became a fry cook on the night shift at Dairy Queen. He then went on to work as a bag boy at a Winn-Dixie grocery story and also managed a miniature golf golf course when he was still in high school. In the summer, Rice worked from 11 am to 11 pm for a total of about 14 hours and he was only paid $1.65 an hour.
Although his father, who was a heating and air conditioning man, stayed in Charleston after the divorce, he still remained active in both of his son’s lives. They would get see him every other week and also during summers. He died when Rice was 16.
Rice enrolled at USC with the plan that he would take the scholarship he had been offered at Duke at the start of the second semester, he stayed at USC as he found that Gamecock campus life was enjoyable and stayed in Columbia where he earned a masters degree in accounting in 1979 and a law degree in 1982
He took the required course in commercial law for his major and also worked as a runner for a Columbia law firm when he was a senior, but he didn’t want to leave college after his four years, and took the suggestion of a lawyer to get a law degree as people who had both accounting and law degrees were in demand at the time.
After college, Tom worked at the worldwide accounting and consulting firm of Deloitte & Touche in Charlotte where he earned his CPA certificate. In 1985 he returned to Myrtle Beach to practice Tax Law with the Van Osdell Law Firm. In 1997, he went on to established his own practice, the Rice & MacDonald Law Firm.
Rice was at bar in Charleston shortly after he graduated from the University of South Carolina. Wrenzie caught his eye and he asked her to dance, but she refused and the two talked and then dated, and a year later, got married.
Rice’s wife Wrenzie Rice says that Tom has been talking about running for office for a few years before he even sought the council chairman’s job, which she encouraged him to do it.
After all, he had just retired from his legal practice and his wife does the bulk of the work managing their real estate holdings. What better time? He was urged by a number of people to seek the 7th District seat, she said.[2] [3]
Mr. Rice is a Member of the Boy Scouts of America, Member of the Advisory Board for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Conservation Education and Communication, Member of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), member of Tork Place, President and Secretary of the Grand Strand Sertoma Club, Chair of the Myrtle Beach Board of Zoning Variances, President of the Myrtle Beach Haven Homeless Shelter, President, Ocean View Foundation and Vestry at Trinity Episcopal Church [3]
Horry County Council Chair (2010-2013)
In 2010, Tom was elected to serve as Chairman of the Horry County Council where he worked to create more effective government by building consensus within county council, and also by strengthening relationships with the various municipalities and legislators to develop a unified strategy. Tom's top priority is JOBS, JOBS, AND MORE JOBS. He has worked with county council members along with community leaders to rebuild the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation and doing so has already paid off as job announcements are just beginning.. He has worked to get more state and federal support for infrastructure in Horry County. He has led the charge for efficiency in government and under his leadership, Horry County Council plans to institute a lean six sigma plan for quality, customer service and efficiency in early 2012.[3]
It was announced on December 19, 2012 that Rice will officially leave his position as Horry County Council Chairman on December 31 as he will be sworn in as the 7th District's new congressman on January 3, 2013. Now the race to fill Rice's chairman seat is now on and three unofficial names you'll hear in the race for Horry County Council Chair are current councilman and vice chair Al Allen, local businessman Mark Lazarus, and former county council chair Liz Gilland. The filing period for people interested in running for Rice's old seat will begin in mid-January and will be only open for 10 days and as of now there is nobody is officially running for the seat, but there are some who would like to be considered. Al Allen who is the currently the council vice chair will serve as chair through the month of January until a new Vice Chair is chosen. The filling period for the county council chair seat will begin on January, 18, 2013 and last for 10 days followed by the primary on March 12,2013 then a general election April 30th, 2013.[1]
U.S. House of Representatives (2013-)
Elections
- 2010
Rice ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. House, representing South Carolina's 7th congressional district elections. On June 12, the Republican candidates who were Andre Bauer, Tom Rice, Jay Jordan, Chad Prosser, Dick Withington, Renee Culler, Jim Mader, Katherine Jenerette and Randal Wallace met on the ballot. The voter turnout was around 14% statewide and votes were dispersed among the nine counties which forced both front runners Bauer and Rice into a run-off election to determine the GOP nominee. Both Rice the Republican and Tinubu the Democrat who were the victors of their run-offs following their respective primaries prepared to square off in general election in November to be the first representative in Congress from the 7th Congressional District. On June 26 where he won and went on to face Gloria Bromell Tinubu(D) in the general election on November 6, 2012
When the polls closed on Election Day, the preliminary results declared current Chairman of Horry County Council Tom Rice the victor, gaining 55 percent of the votes (with 77 percent of precincts reporting) and defeating Dr. Gloria Bromell [4]
The Associated Press declared Republican Tom Rice the winner in the 7th District congressional race at 11 p.m. The difference was only 18,000 votes. The Associated Press said that with 78 percent of the votes counted, Rice held a 55 percent lead over Tinubu’s 45 percent. The difference was only 18,000 votes and the AP reported that most if not all of which likely came from Rice’s overwhelming victory over Tinubu in Horry County.
Tinubu said at first that she wasn’t going to conceding the race and that she wanted to see the full vote before conceding the, but an half hour later she gave up any hope that she could win. She told he her supporters earlier in the night that she has been told that the race isn’t over until all the vote are counted and also based on what she’s seen, it is not clear whether all the counties have counted my votes. [5]
Rice raked in more than 65,000 votes in Horry County which is 64 percent of all cast, and nearly 30,000 more than Tinubu. Horry County, with more than 170,000 registered voters and can almost dictate any political race in the eight-county 7th District. Horry County has over 87,000 more registered voters than Florence County, which has the second highest number of registered voters in the district. Horry has 5,000 more registered voters than the other six counties in the district combined. [5]
At his acceptance speech at Longbeards in Carolina Forest where a crowd of supporters were celebrated Rice said that the hard work is just getting ready to start. [4]
Rice said that he would be spending time with his family until about 11:00am on Wednesday morning afterwards he would start being a congressman, but in reality he spent with his family, friends and his campaign staff actually happened at his home after the election results were known late Tuesday night.
When all of the votes were counted it was reported on the South Carolina Election Commission's website that GOP nominee Tom Rice had gained 63.9 percent of vote in comparison to the compared to the 35.8 percent of ballots cast for Dr. Gloria Bromell Tinubu.
By 11 a.m. the next morning Rice had received about 50 calls on his cell phone, 55 emails, 40 text messages, and even set up a slew of media interviews. [6]
After it was announced that Tom Rice had won the 7th Congressional race several people have announced that they will run for Rice's yet to vacated Horry County Council Chair seat including former council chairwoman Liz Gilland, local businessman Mark Lazarus and most recently current councilman Al Allen.[7][8] [9][10]
The 7th Congressional District, forged from Chesterfield , Marlboro , Marlboro, Florence, Dillon, Marion, Horry and Georgetown counties, is new to the ballot in 2012.[11][12] [4] [13][14]
Committee assignments
Rice was appointed by the United States House of Representatives to the Transportation & Infrastructure, Budget Committee, and Committee on Small Business of the 113th Congress. Rices appointment to the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure could help focus the attention on the need for Interstate 73 and the appointment also gives Rice the opportunity to push to get more funding to dredge the Georgetown port. [15][16]
- United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
- Budget Committee
- Committee on Small Business
Personal
Rice and his family reside in Myrtle Beach where various community activities. One of his most notable community achievements was helping raise over 1 million dollars to build a new facility for The Haven, a Myrtle Beach area homeless shelter. In his free time he enjoys fishing, hunting, golfing and spending time with his family and friends. He is currently married to his wife of 29 years, Wrenzie, and they have three adult sons; H.T., Jacob, and Lucas. The oldest son is a lawyer at Rice, MacDonald and Hicks, the law firm which Rice worked atbefore retiring two years ago. The middle child, Jacob, worked on his father's campaign and his youngest child, Lucas, lives in Chicago.
References
- ^ a b Hinnant, Lauren. "Horry County Chair seat empty Dec. 31, filing opens mid-January". WBTW News 13. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- ^ a b Jones, Steve (3 November 2012). "Tom Rice: Inexperience could be a good thing". The Sun News. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ^ a b c "Meet Tom Rice". Tom Rice/Tom Rice for Congress. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- ^ a b c "Voters elect first congressman, Tom Rice, from 7th District". WMBF News. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ a b Jones, Steve (07 November 2012). "Republican Rice wins new 7th District seat". The Sun News. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Jones, Steve (8 November 2012). "End of election no time for rest for 7th District congressman". The Sun News. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ Dickerson, Brad (15 November 2012). "Allen throws hat into ring for Horry County Council chairman position". The Sun News. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ Dickerson, Brad (7 November 2012). "Gilland, Lazarus two who will seek Horry County Council Chairman seat". The Sun News. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
- ^ "Horry County councilman Al Allen joins race for chairman's seat". The Sun News. 14 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ Smith, Drew. "Established Horry County leaders plan to run for chairman position". WBTW News 13. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ WYFF News-2012 Primary Results
- ^ SC Now "Tinubu wins Democratic runoff; Rice beats Bauer for GOP spot," June 26, 2012
- ^ Williams, Taylor. [www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=822253#.UJ8ljdeiGMt "Tom Rice wins 7th congressional district"]. WPDE /Carolina Live. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ Jones, Steve. "End of election no time for rest for 7th District congressman". The Sun News. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
- ^ Jones, Steve (12 December 2012). "Rice appointed to House transportation committee". The Sun News. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ "Rep. Tom Rice committee appointments". WBTW. Retrieved 13 December 2012.