Republican Rep. Nancy Mace kicked off her campaign for South Carolina governor Monday, reveling in her reputation as a politically mercurial outsider willing to take on the establishment and go to battle for conservative causes.
“South Carolina is tired of politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face and then vanish when it’s time to lead,’’ Mace told a gathering of supporters at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, where she made history as the school’s first female graduate. “I’m running for governor because South Carolina doesn’t need another empty suit. It needs a governor who will fight for you and your values.”
Mace pledged to work with federal immigration authorities to expel undocumented immigrants, slash the state income tax and defund colleges that push “gender ideology.”
“I’m here to fight for you and your values,’’ the third-term congresswoman said. “So to the establishment this morning and the cowards hiding behind their … press releases, buckle up. To the radical left, brace yourselves. And to the great people of the great state of South Carolina, help is on the way.”
Mace joins a crowded GOP primary field that already includes Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette; state Attorney General Alan Wilson; state Sen. Josh Kimbrell; and Rep. Ralph Norman, her colleague in the House Republican Conference who launched his campaign late last month.
In the deeply conservative Palmetto State, where Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial election since 1998, the victor in the Republican primary would be the heavy favorite to succeed GOP incumbent Henry McMaster, who is precluded by law from seeking a third full term.
In her announcement at the Citadel, Mace sketched the broad outlines of her journey from high school dropout to Waffle House server to barrier-breaking student at the famed military academy.
“I learned about having courage, I learned about having discipline,” she said. “I learned right here at the Citadel how to hold the line no matter the odds.”
Mace first ran for Congress in 2014, when she challenged Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in a primary. She finished in fifth place with 6 percent of the vote. About four years later, she won a special election to the state House, representing a seat in the Charleston suburbs.
In 2020, Mace narrowly unseated Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in the state’s 1st District. The seat later became more Republican in redistricting, and Mace has since twice been reelected by double digits, including a 17-point victory last fall.
Several Democrats had already lined up to take on Mace in the coastal district, which includes suburban Charleston and the Hilton Head Island area. Republicans, though, should start out as the favorites to hold the seat next year – Donald Trump carried it by 13 points in 2024, according to calculations by Daily Kos Elections.
Mace came to Congress in 2021 with more moderate views on social issues such as LBGTQ rights and abortion.
Since then, however, she has burnished an image as a conservative firebrand and become an outspoken opponent of transgender rights, using social media to amplify her message.
Mace regularly brands herself as part of a “caucus of one.” She was part of a group of seven Republicans who voted against Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023. In a move that left some of her fellow Republicans scratching their heads, she wore a T-shirt with a large red letter “A” that she said was a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter,” which tells of women persecuted by their Puritan community.
Earlier this year, Mace delivered a speech on the House floor in which she accused multiple men of sexual assault and said Wilson, the state attorney general and now her rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, ignored the allegations. Wilson, the son of South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, called Mace’s claims “categorically false.”
Mace has had a complicated relationship with Trump. She worked on his 2016 presidential campaign, but following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters, she voted in favor of an independent commission to investigate the riot.
In recent years, Mace has been more vocal in her support for the president. Her launch video for the governor’s race features a clip of Trump calling Mace a fighter.
“When she sets her sight on something, she’s tough,’’ Trump says in the clip.
Nick Eskow contributed to this report.
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