CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump is planning to hold a rally in South Carolina as early as this month or this spring, where he can champion two Republican congressional candidates while also making a visit to an early presidential primary voting state, according to four sources with direct knowledge of his thinking.
The sources, who spoke to The State newspaper Wednesday on the condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely about ongoing discussions, said the former president is eager to return to South Carolina.
Additionally, two sources with direct knowledge of the event say one of the people organizing Trump's rally in South Carolina is Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser who was subpoenaed by the U.S. House select committee that is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Wren helped plan the former president's rally ahead of the riot last year, and her name was listed as "VIP Advisor" on permit paperwork for that Jan. 6 rally.
An exact location for the South Carolina rally is still being determined, but multiple sources said it could be held in Florence.
News of a possible rally, which sources said could be held as early as next week but no later than April, comes one day after Republican Katie Arrington launched her U.S. House campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Daniel Island Republican, in the race for Charleston's congressional seat. Arrington and Mace served in the state House together.
In launching her campaign in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, Arrington has positioned herself as a loyal pro-Trump Republican who will push for his "America First" agenda if elected.
In another Republican primary contest shaking out along the South Carolina coast, Trump has thrown his weight behind South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry.
Fry is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, a Myrtle Beach Republican, who stunned the nation and his constituents when he voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In November, Trump called for "good and SMART America First Republican Patriots" to run primary campaigns against Mace and other Republicans who he said have not been completely loyal to him.
If they did, Trump promised them, "You will have my backing!"
So far, Trump has not made an endorsement yet in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District contest.
However, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as Trump's U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2019 and is a rumored 2024 presidential candidate, endorsed Mace in the congressional GOP primary contest on Monday.
If Trump holds this event in South Carolina, one source pointed out that this could allow Trump to send a big signal to any 2024 White House contenders that the former president is not willing to cede any ground in this early presidential primary state that has a track record of electing the eventual GOP presidential nominee.
On Tuesday, the governor's office confirmed that South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who received Trump's "complete and total endorsement" last year in March, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the former president last week.
When asked Tuesday if the two had discussed Trump making a trip to South Carolina, McMaster told a reporter, "We didn't get into that."
Asked if he planned to endorse any candidate in either the 1st Congressional District race or the 7th Congressional District, McMaster responded, "I'm for Republicans." He declined to elaborate.
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(Maayan Schechter contributed to this story with reporting from Columbia.)
