Nancy Mace offers shallow brand of politics in SC governor’s race | Opinion
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace just gave South Carolina voters a golden opportunity to improve the state’s political environment, if only a little, by potentially ending her political career next year.
On Monday, Mace made the worst kept secret in the world official. She announced she’s running to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, who is barred by term limits from running again.
If successful, hers would be a historic feat. She would go from being a high school dropout and Waffle House waitress to becoming only the second female governor in the state after making history in 1999 as the first woman to graduate from The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets.
It would be hard to imagine a more impressive rise if Mace pulls it off, even more than her ascent as the first Republican woman from South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. There, she had only to win over a fraction of the state’s voters in a district that was once competitive but has since been gerrymandered into a safe seat for Republicans.
Such a story would be worth celebrating had Mace not adopted such a shallow brand of politics over the past few years. She seems poised to bring that brand of politics back to Columbia if elected governor.
We know what to expect because she’s made it plain. For that, at least, we should be grateful.
She adopted a reasonable right-of-center persona when that suited her best, and dropped it as soon as the political winds blew in the opposite direction. Then she became a self-aggrandizer.
She was willing to criticize Donald Trump for inspiring a violent insurrection attempt after the direct assault on the heart of our democracy at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. She no longer is. Now she describes herself as Trump in high heels.
Mace once voted against a Democratic Party-led infrastructure bill that would fund important transit projects in the state — because that’s what Republicans were supposed to do to be pro-Trump and anti-Democrat — then brazenly tried to take credit for the funding.
She pretends to be tough and never back down, but such choices show she’s just a Republican more likely to be led than lead, even if that means ushering her constituents over a cliff.
Such a person should not be governor or a steward in a state with 5.5 million people and a $13 billion general fund budget with more than $40 billion in total spending.
Recently, Mace turned her performative ire towards undocumented immigrants as that issue became more politically salient in a state that does not share a border with Mexico. But she’s better known for continually defaming transgender people — who make up a small percentage of the population — to increase the number of times she gets to be on TV, especially cable news.
She’s sought the spotlight while pretending to be a fearless fighter for girls and women, which may be her most egregious and hypocritical claim.
Mace says she supports Trump unequivocally, but he has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, including Ivana Trump, his first wife, who described an incident as “rape” in a divorce deposition before saying she didn’t mean it “in a literal or criminal sense.” He has been found liable for sexual abuse. He also was a close friend of notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and refuses to make public files that might reveal other wealthy, powerful men who were complicit but never held to account in a scandal with minors.
A loss in next year’s Republican primary would mean Mace will be kept out of the governor’s mansion and may mark the end of her tenure as a public official, which has been more bizarre than productive.
I don’t have a favorite for governor. I’m not satisfied with the Republican field, but I understand the Republican primary is likely to produce South Carolina’s next governor given the state’s voter registration. It’s during that primary process the state’s voters will send a loud message, that they want the shallow brand of politics Mace offers, or something a little better.
Instead of pretending to be a good leader, she’ll have more time to devote to her real passions: seeking out TV cameras, getting into arguments with strangers, and calling trans people derogatory slurs.
Issac J. Bailey is a McClatchy opinion writer in North Carolina and South Carolina.
This story was originally published August 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.