Trump doubles down on South Carolina GOP chair endorsement, ignores his own lawyer’s campaign
Former President Donald Trump doubled down Tuesday on his support for South Carolina GOP chairman Drew McKissick — days after his own lawyer announced he was running against the incumbent.
Personal injury and defamation lawyer L. Lin Wood announced his dark horse bid to unseat McKissick over the weekend with an email directly appealing to pro-Trump “Patriots.”
“I want to help my new neighbors in South Carolina return the Republican Party back to The People,” Wood wrote. “The People have ALL the power — not the elite cabal of the old guard leadership.”
But the ex-president, who endorsed McKissick in February, made no mention of Wood in a brief email statement Tuesday.
“(McKissick) will continue to grow the party and help Conservatives get elected in the Great State of South Carolina,” Trump wrote. “Drew has my Complete and Total Endorsement for re-election!”
Wood, 68, emerged from relative obscurity to become a key member of Trump’s hodgepodge legal team after President Joe Biden’s victory.
Along with right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell, Wood filed lawsuits in states from coast to coast seeking to overturn Biden’s wins.
The lawsuits, most of which were summarily dismissed by judges, repeated unfounded claims about rigged voting machines and other conspiracy theories.
Wood irked some Trump backers when he encouraged Republican voters to sit out the Georgia Senate run-off elections to dramatize their claims that the election would be rigged.
Both Republican incumbents wound up losing in the run-offs, handing control of the entire U.S. Senate to Democrats.
