Mace

WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is running for governor, entering a GOP primary in which competition for President Trump’s endorsement — and the backing of his base of supporters — is expected to be fierce.

Mace, who last year won her third term representing South Carolina’s 1st District, made her run official during a launch event Monday at The Citadel military college in Charleston. She plans to start a statewide series of town halls later this week with an event in Myrtle Beach.

“I’m running for governor because South Carolina doesn’t need another empty suit and needs a governor who will fight for you and your values,” Mace said. “South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what it takes.”

Mace told the Associated Press on Sunday she plans a multi-pronged platform aimed in part at shoring up the state’s criminal justice system, ending South Carolina’s income tax, protecting women and children, expanding school choice and vocational education and improving the state’s energy options.

Official filing for South Carolina’s 2026 elections doesn’t open until March, but several other Republicans have already entered the state’s first truly open governor’s race in 16 years, including Atty. General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Rep. Ralph Norman.

Both Wilson and Evette have touted their own connections to the Republican president, but Mace — calling herself “Trump in high heels” — said she is best positioned to carry out his agenda in South Carolina, where he has remained popular since his 2016 state primary win helped cement his status as the GOP presidential nominee.

Saying she plans to seek his support, Mace pointed to her defense of Trump in an interview that resulted in ABC News agreeing to pay $15 million toward his presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit. She also noted that she called Trump early this year as part of an effort to persuade GOP holdouts to support Rep. Mike Johnson to become House speaker.

“No one will work harder to get his attention and his endorsement,” she said. “No one else in this race can say they’ve been there for the president like I have, as much as I have, and worked as hard as I have to get the president his agenda delivered to him in the White House.”

Mace has largely supported Trump, working for his 2016 campaign but levying criticism against him following the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the U.S. Capitol, which spurred Trump to back a GOP challenger in her 2022 race. Mace defeated that opponent, won reelection and was endorsed by Trump in her 2024 campaign.

A month after she told the AP in January that she was “seriously considering” a run, Mace went what she called “scorched earth,” using a nearly hourlong speech on the U.S. House floor in February to accuse her ex-fiancé of physically abusing her, recording sex acts with her and others without their consent, and conspiring with business associates in acts of rape and sexual misconduct.

Mace’s ex-fiancé said he “categorically” denied the accusations, and another man Mace mentioned has sued her for defamation, arguing the accusations were a “dangerous mix of falsehoods and baseless accusations.”

“I want every South Carolinian to watch me as I fight for my rights as a victim,” Mace said, when asked if she worried about litigation related to the speech. “I want them to know I will fight just as hard for them as I am fighting for myself.”

Mace, 47, was the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the state’s military college, where her father then served as commandant of cadets. After briefly serving in the state House, in 2020 she became the first Republican woman elected to represent South Carolina in Congress, flipping the 1st District after one term with a Democratic representative.

“I’m going to draw the line, and I’m going to hold it for South Carolina, and I’m going to put her people first,” Mace said.

Kinnard writes for the Associated Press.

1 of 2 | Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, arrives to speak at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in 2024. Mace announced today that she will run for governor of South Carolina. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 4 (UPI) — United States Representative Nancy Mace, R-S.C., announced her run for South Carolina governor Monday morning to succeed Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

“This morning, I’m making it official. I am running to be your governor of the great state of South Carolina,” Mace said in an announcement Monday morning at The Citadel, where she became the first woman to graduate from the Corps of Cadets program in 1999.

Mace, 47, first came to Congress in 2021. She has developed a reputation as a GOP firebrand in recent months.

Mace told Fox News last week that she was leaning toward running for state-wide office, citing economic issues, crime and “gender-bending ideology” at colleges in the state.

Mace will run against fellow Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., state Attorney General Alan Wilson, R, state Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R, in the primary.

Mace told Fox News that if she launched a gubernatorial bid, she and Wilson would run a “two-man race.”

“If I get in, I will fight to the finish, and I will take out South Carolina’s attorney general, because he’s turned a blind eye on women and on children and on the state for a lot of reasons. He might force me to do this,” Mace said.

“South Carolina is tired of the politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face, and then vanish when it’s time to lead,” she said.

A poll released by the South Carolina Policy Council showed Mace narrowly leading Wilson in the primary among Republican-identifying voters.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speak in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday. Mace wants her House colleague, LaMonica McIver, to be expelled after the Justice Department charged her with allegedly assaulting an ICE enforcement officer. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

May 24 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace said she intends to file a resolution to expel her House colleague LaMonica McIver after the Justice Department charged her with allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers.

McIver, who represents a New Jersey district after being elected in November, was arrested after footage showed her elbowing an Immigration and Customs official outside a migrant detention facility, Delaney Hall, in Newark, N.J., on May 9. She was charged Monday.

Mace, who has represented South Carolina in Congress since 2021, wrote Wednesday in a three-page resolution obtained by Axios that McIver “must be held accountable to the highest standards of conduct in order to safeguard the public’s faith in this institution.”

Mace posted on X: “Members of Congress don’t get a free pass to break the law. No one is above the law — not even you, LaMonica.”

McIver, who has denied assaulting law enforcement and was elected to her seat in November, responded in a post on X: “In the South I think they say, ‘bless her heart.’ “

McIver has said she instead was assaulted and accused the Trump administration of a political prosecution. A preliminary hearing has been set for June 11.

The Department of Homeland Security posted video of the incident on X.

Democrats said she has every right to conduct oversight of the detention center.

Mace said she will introduce the resolution but would let the House Ethics Committee consider it, rather than forcing a House floor vote on it.

Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, of Georgia, introduced a resolution to strip committee assignments from McIver and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, both of New Jersey, for their actions at the detention center.

Expulsion requires a two-thirds majority vote of the House. Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisian,a said expulsion is “not likely” but they were “looking into what is appropriate.”

In her news release, Mace cited the expulsion of former Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, saying it “set precedent for expelling Members charged, but not yet convicted, of serious criminal offenses.” She voted against the measure.

In 2023, Santos was expelled in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, 314-114 with two present and eight not voting after being charged with nearly two dozen criminal counts, including wire fraud and money laundering. Santos was sentenced on April 25 to seven years in federal prison.