Hugh Thompson Rice Jr. is the U.S. Representative for. Elected to the 113th Congress in November 2012, he is a conservative Republican. He was a member of the freshman class chosen to sit at the House Republican leadership table. Rice was chair of the Horry County Council until he resigned from the position on December 31, 2012. Rice won re-election in 2014. He defeated Democratic challenger Gloria Bromell Tinubu on November 4, 2014. He also defeated Bromell Tinubu in the general election on November 6, 2012.
Early life, education, and pre-congressional career
Rice was born in Charleston on August 4, 1957. He was four years old when his parents divorced, and his mother, a teacher, took him and his brother Clay to Myrtle Beach. Rice’s first job was a busboy when he was 12, and he was variously a night shift fry cook, a grocery store bag boy and miniature golf course manager while still in high school. Rice was 16 when his father died. Rice was offered a scholarship to Duke University but enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where he earned a master's degree in accounting in 1979 and a law degree in 1982. After college, he worked at the accounting/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, then established his own practice, Rice & MacDonald, in 1997. He was elected chair of Horry County Council in 2010.
Rice won election in the U.S. Congress elections, 2012 for the U.S. House, representing South Carolina'sSouth Carolina's 7th congressional district. Rice defeated Jay Jordan, Randal Wallace, Dick Withington, James Mader, Chad Prosser, Katherine Jenerette, and Renee Culler in the Republican primary on June 12, 2012 to advance to a runoff. He defeated major rival Andre Bauer in the run-off election on June 26, 2012 Rice defeated Gloria Bromell Tinubu in the general election on November 6, 2012. Rice won re-election in 2014 defeating Democratic challenger Gloria Bromell Tinubu with 60.15 percent of the votes over Rommel-Tinubu's 39.85 percent.
In early December 2012, Rice was appointed by the United States House of Representatives to the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, United States House Committee on the Budget and United States House Committee on Small Business of the 113th Congress. On January 8, 2013, Congressman Sam Graves appointed Rice chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access. Graves said that Rice would be a "great fit" because of his knowledge about the challenges facing small business owners. Rice said he would "work to limit government overreach, enact serious tax reform, and lower the cost of doing business in America, so our small business owners—America’s economic engine—can compete in our economy and the global marketplace." On January 22, 2013, Rice was appointed to the following subcommittees: Highways and Transit, Water Resources and Environment, and Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. Rice said the appointments would allow him to work for the funding and construction of Interstate 73 as well as the dredging of the Georgetown Port. On November 11, 2013, Rice was appointed to the water resources conference committee which is to help resolve differences between the U.S. House and Senate versions of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013. The version that has recently passed the House would allow for the dredging of the Georgetown port which is a $33 million project and would bring an estimated $30 million annual economic boost to the local economy. In a press release from his office Congressman Rice stated, "My district sent me to Washington to work on our infrastructure needs and the needs of the state," and, "Since joining the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I have made it my goal to do whatever it takes to champion South Carolina's ports."
Electoral history
Personal life
Rice and his family reside in Myrtle Beach. He married his wife, Wrenzie, in 1982 and they have three adult sons. In late May 2020, Rice announced that he refused to wear a face mask in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States while in Congress; in mid-June, he announced that he, his wife, and his son, had all been infected with COVID-19.
