It was one of several closely watched races around the country; South Carolina's 7th Congressional District.
Rice was criticized for voting to impeach the former president after the January sixth Capitol riots; allowing Fry to grow his base and come out on top.
A political science professor at Francis Marion University told ABC 15 News while many expected a runoff between the two, there are a few reasons why Fry was able to take home the win.
Dr. David White said this will impact the future of the 7th Congressional District in more ways than one.
"All those other people that voted for the other candidates didn't want Tom Rice either," said White. "Everyone was trying to, they all said they were Trump supporters, and they were all trying to defeat tom rice. So, this was about Donald Trump and Tom Rice."
When the votes came through, Russell Fry was the clear winner across every precinct in the 7th Congressional District.
While he beat out the other five candidates, eyes were on the race against incumbent Tom Rice.
Fry surpassed him by over 20% of the voting margin.
Dr. White said before Russell Fry won the votes in the Republican primary election, Congressman Tom Rice had already lost them.
"His vote to impeach Donald Trump was a big factor. Realize that 75% of the voters did not vote for him, so looking at it that way, I mean, it was a really really big loss."
His vote to impeach the former president following the Capitol insurrection is something Rice has always stood by; even on Tuesday night following the election results.
"I know I did the right thing," said Rice. "I know I defended the Constitution. If people want to chose what happened on January 6th over the Constitution, that's up to them."
While White said Rice's decision to turn on the former president wasn't necessarily a wrong decision morally, it became his campaign downfall.
He said voters across the state ultimately did what Donald Trump wanted them to do, elect the candidate he endorsed.
He said while many of the Republican candidates running in this primary checked the conservative boxes, Fry having Trump's support ultimately led him to his win.
"The thing about Mr. Fry is that he won everywhere. I mean, you look at the results on the map on the South Carolina Election Commission website and it's all his color, all over in all the precincts."
While not all Trump endorsed candidates, like Katie Arrington who ran in the First Congressional District race, won their primary in South Carolina, he explained the voting pools from across the Grand Strand, through the Pee Dee region and into the Low Country aren't the same.
"There's been so much growth in Horry County and a lot of that growth are people from the north who are pretty conservative or trump supporters actually moving there; and I'm sure there's some moving to Charleston as well, but I think it's a little bit different set of people that vote in Charleston than to Horry County. Even Florence is different from the beach in a way and then you have the rural counties," said White.
As we look to the future of campaigning across South Carolina, and other conservative areas in the nation, he said it's already changing.
"It's a little bit bigger than Donald Trump now, if that can be said," he explained. "If Donald Trump were to go away, I think there's a force; there's all sorts of republicans ready to carry that anti-Washington banner, let's not do things the old way, we're conservative, lest win; so there's plenty of people that are ready to still carry that banner.”
The winner of that race will represent the 7th Congressional District in a two year term.