Congresswoman Nancy Mace launches bid for SC governor. 5 things to know
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U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who represents the Lowcountry congressional district, formally kicked off her bid for the GOP nomination for South Carolina governor. She posted her minute-long video with a tagline “Nancy Mace for Governor” on her website Sunday evening.
Mace’s entrance into the governor’s race is hardly a surprise. In January, Mace was the first of the expected front-runners to say she was considering a run. She has since been touring the state and taking to social media to criticize both Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who are both in the race.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman also are in the race for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, who can’t run for reelection in 2026.
“I didn’t come to join the club. They don’t want me, and I don’t want them: I came to hold the line,” Mace said in her remarks on the campus of The Citadel, the state’s military college. “South Carolina is tired of politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face, then vanish when it’s time to lead. I’m not one of them.”
Who is Nancy Mace?
Mace is a Lowcountry congresswoman. She made national headlines in February when, during a House floor speech, she accused four men of rape and voyeurism, while also accusing Attorney General Wilson of not taking action to prosecute the cases,. Wilson denied the assertion saying the case, which is under investigation, has not been referred to his office. She served in the State House of Representatives from 2018 through 2020 before being elected to Congress.
She also is known for sharing how she was raped as a teenager, dropped out of high school and worked at a Waffle House. She is the first woman to graduate from The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets, and then later earned a master’s degree from the University of Georgia.
Her bid for governor is not her first statewide run. In 2014, she was one of six Republicans who ran against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in the primary, which the state’s senior senator easily won.
Why does it make sense for Mace to run?
Mace was elected to her first term in Congress in 2020 when she knocked off Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham in the Lowcountry in what was at the time the state’s only truly competitive congressional district during a general election. She won that race by a little more than 1 percentage point. After redistricting, her general election races have had wider margins.
“Nancy Mace has been a member of the State House and the U.S. House, and now she must see a path to the governor’s office - and that’s why she may well be making this calculation, giving up what amounts to a safe seat in Congress,” said Rob Godfrey, South Carolina Republican strategist who is not working for any campaign for governor this cycle. “Whether it’s the right calculation certainly remains an open question, but it’s a question for which we will see the answer revealed over the next few months.”
In Congress, she serves as chair of an oversight and government reform subcommittee.
Since being elected, Mace has not been shy about appearing on media. Mace regularly appears on cable news shows, which as allowed her to raise her profile.
“I think Nancy Mace has a national profile that can be harnessed into large fundraising. She starts probably with one of the highest name IDs in the state,” said Alex Stroman, a former SC GOP executive director who is not working for a campaign for governor this cycle. “Mace has the ability to nationally fundraise, based on her many cable television appearances and a lot of the positions she’s taken on Capitol Hill.”
Is Mace aligned with President Donald Trump?
Yes, but before, no. And before that, yes.
During the 2016 campaign, Mace worked as a Trump coalitions and field director. After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in her first term as a congresswoman, Mace criticized Trump for the events that led up to the riot. In 2022, Trump endorsed Katie Arrington in the Republican primary against Mace.
Mace and Trump eventually were back on the same page after the congresswoman backed Trump’s presidential campaign in January 2024 ahead of South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary. During a campaign rally ahead of the primary, Mace even received a shoutout from Trump.
“We’ve come a long way,” Trump said of Mace.
Since then, Mace has been a vocal proponent of Trump’s initiatives, such as supporting the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and praising the president’s policies to increase efforts to remove immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Trump calls Mace “a fighter” in a video posted on the congresswoman’s campaign website
“I want to make sure that every municipality, every town, every county, every congressional office, that we’re all working together to make sure we get all the resources we need in South Carolina for everything, and we’ve been very effective at it, and with Trump as president, it’s going to be very important that we have a governor who has a great relationship with the President, like I do,” Mace told reporters after her campaign launch.
What advantages does Mace have?
In a Winthrop University Poll released in March, Mace had the best name recognition among potential candidates for governor, with 57% of Republicans in South Carolina saying they were familiar with her. It was impressive for someone who last ran statewide in 2014 when she challenged Graham. Mace’s willingness to appear on national cable news outlets helped to build her profile.
“Nancy Mace is media savvy and generates a tremendous amount of earned media. By trade, she’s a PR professional. She has no problem making herself available for TV, print and digital media opportunities, in addition to maintaining a robust - if not occasionally overdone - social media presence,” Godfrey said.
Other very early polling showed she is among the leading candidates in the race. A South Carolina Policy Council poll released July 28 found Mace led all contenders with 16% of support. Wilson had 15% in the poll, but 52% of respondents were undecided. A poll released July 22 by American Pulse Research & Polling had Wilson with 22.6% of support in the poll. Mace had 17.3%
Being in Congress, she also has developed a national network of donors. According to 2023-2024 Nancy Mace for Congress filings with the Federal Elections Commission, more than 83% of the committee’s contributions were from outside of South Carolina. She has made trips around the country this year making public appearances in Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. The question will be whether she can convince those out-of-state donors to contribute to campaign in a state that won’t directly affect their lives.
What challenges does Mace face?
Mace comes from the Lowcountry and her seat was previously South Carolina’s lone toss-up district. She previously had moderate positions that will more than likely come back up during a campaign among conservative voters statewide.
“I think the challenge facing her candidacy is really understanding the ‘why’ for Nancy Mace. She’s been on many different sides of a lot of different issues, sometimes within weeks or months of each other,” Stroman said. “And I think that she’ll have to explain to voters what her vision actually is, what her values are, how her positions may have changed numerous times, and how she squares her changing positions with the values conversation that’s needed — that will be her biggest challenge.”
Mace voted to codify the ability of gay and lesbian couples to marry and she voted to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress when he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot.
“In a statewide primary, public scrutiny of each candidate’s record, temperament and judgment is higher than ever,” Godfrey said. “Just as scrutiny will be applied to everyone who runs for governor, it will be applied to Nancy Mace.”
Mace had staff turnover in her congressional office, with several staffers being critical of her. In January when speaking to reporters she said reasons for staffers dismissals were misreported.
“In terms of staff turnover, if you don’t work hard, you’re gone, you’re fired. If you do things that are unethical or immoral, I will fire you in a heartbeat,” Mace said told reporters in January before speaking to the Richland County GOP.
She was complimentary of the staff she has in place now.
“I have the best staff I’ve ever had, and if I run for governor, I hope that every single one of them will follow me there, because they’re phenomenal in the amount of work we could do for the state,” Mace said in January.
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
