COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a decade of roiling South Carolina and national politics, Rep. Nancy Mace finished a distant fifth in her state's Republican primary for governor, leaving an uncertain future for one of the nation's unabashed politicians.
Her campaign mirrored her whipsaw career. Mace courted the support of President Donald Trump after harshly criticizing him over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She emphasized her fights with other Republicans to release files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
In the final days before Tuesday's primary, she called for a law to prevent anyone not born in the U.S. from holding political office or serving as a judge. She suggested that Rom Reddy, another candidate for governor, wasn't qualified because he was a naturalized citizen whose mother was from India and father from Italy.
“I didn’t come out of a slum in India,” Mace said during an appearance in Greenville County this month. “I am born and made here in America.”
By the end of her campaign, she was only making sporadic public appearances. She struggled to raise money and had no presence on television. Mace mostly communicated through social media — a place she has used to her advantage since first being elected to the South Carolina House in 2017.
Mace didn't give an indication of her next plans in her concession speech Tuesday night, although she posted Wednesday on social media that she was “headed back to the private sector” at the end of her current House term. She is backing Alan Wilson in the runoff for governor, even though just last year she accused Wilson of protecting child sex abuse defendants.
“When children needed him to act, Wilson looked the other way," she said.
Wilson will face Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the runoff on June 23. Evette received Trump's endorsement, spurring Mace to lash out on social media.
“Pamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP,” Mace wrote, incorrectly. “Do not believe her LIES.” Mace posted an AI-generated image of herself posing with Trump.
Where does Mace stand with Trump?
Mace’s history with Trump goes back a decade, and, like many Republicans, it’s had its ups and downs.
She worked as a field director on Trump's 2016 campaign, and he endorsed her first congressional run in 2020, albeit after she won the Republican nomination.
But their rapport fractured as soon as Mace got to Washington. After the freshman House member sought to hold Trump accountable for Jan. 6 and said his “entire legacy” had been “wiped out,” he labeled Mace as “crazy” and solicited primary challengers to take her on. Trump endorsed and campaigned for one of them, but Mace — with future Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as her media consultant — won anyway, and Trump went on to support her general election bid.
As Trump sought to return to the White House in 2024, Mace didn’t endorse him over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley until a day before the New Hampshire primary.
Mace lauded Trump during a primetime Republican National Convention speech and, after winning her own reelection, branded herself as “Trump in high heels” during the early days of her gubernatorial campaign.
But another fracture was on the horizon. This spring, while angling for Trump’s endorsement, Mace was among several Republicans who joined congressional Democrats to force the Justice Department to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump went on to back Evette, saying she had “never wavered” in her support of him. Evette had endorsed Trump early in the 2024 campaign.
Four congressional Republicans were part of the initial group pushing for a discharge petition forcing the files’ release. Mace and Rep. Thomas Massie lost their races, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January.
In a lengthy statement posted after her Tuesday loss, Mace said she had “taken on the rich and powerful in both parties” and “voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that.”
From Waffle House to The Citadel to Congress
Mace dropped out of high school and worked as a server at the Waffle House before getting her diploma. She later attended The Citadel and became the first woman to graduate from the state’s military academy. And in recent years, she talked about the importance of defending victims of sexual assault and shared stories of being raped as a teen.
After her political career began in the South Carolina House, Mace got wide praise from Republicans in 2020 for winning back a U.S. House seat around Charleston that had flipped to Democrats for one term.
“For those folks that are out there today that maybe weren’t with us yesterday, I’m asking for a chance — a chance to prove to you that I will be a compassionate leader, a good listener, an independent thinker,” Mace said then.
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Kinnard reported from Washington. Bill Barrow contributed from Atlanta.
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