Nancy Mace

Nancy Ruth Mace (born December 4, 1977) is an American politician who has been the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district since 2021.

Her district includes much of the state's share of the East Coast, from Charleston to Hilton Head Island.

In 1999, Mace became the first woman to graduate from the Corps of Cadets program at The Citadel.

In 1999, Mace became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel's Corps of Cadets program, receiving a degree in business administration.

Mace wrote In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel (Simon & Schuster, 2001) about the experience.

Mace went on to earn a master's degree in journalism and mass communication from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Mace became co-owner of the website FITSNews, which she began working for in 2007, but sold her stake in 2013.

The site covers South Carolina politics and current events.

In 2008, Mace started a public relations and consulting firm called The Mace Group.

In 2012, Mace volunteered for the campaign of presidential candidate Ron Paul.

In August 2013, Mace announced her candidacy in the 2014 election for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

She received 19,560 votes (6.2% of the vote) in the primary election on June 10, 2014, behind Lindsey Graham (56.4%), Lee Bright (15.4%), Richard Cash (8.3%), and Det Bowers (7.3%).

Mace worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, but strongly condemned his actions surrounding the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack.

Mace asserted that Trump's legacy had been "wiped out" and that he should be held "accountable" for his actions.

However, she ultimately voted against impeaching him.

In her 2022 re-election campaign, Mace fended off a Trump-back primary challenger.

Within a year, Mace would change her rhetoric, later coming to Trump's defense following his criminal indictment.

In 2024, Mace endorsed Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries over Nikki Haley, who supported Mace in the 2022 primary.

Mace was born at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to United States Army officer James Emory Mace and schoolteacher Anne Mace.

Mace supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 as a coalitions director and field director for the campaign.

On September 18, 2017, Mace filed as a Republican to run in a special election for the South Carolina State House District 99 seat being vacated by Jimmy Merrill, who resigned earlier that month after an indictment and plea deal for several ethics violations.

She received 49.5% of the vote in the November 14 Republican primary, 13 votes short of winning the nomination outright.

She defeated the second-place finisher, Mount Pleasant town councilman Mark Smith, in the November 28 runoff, 63–37%.

From 2018 to 2020, she represented the 99th district in the South Carolina House of Representatives, covering Hanahan, northeast Mount Pleasant, and Daniel Island.

Mace defeated Democrat Cindy Boatwright in the January 16, 2018, general election, 2,066 votes to 1,587 (57–43%).

She took office on January 23, 2018.

Mace defeated the Democratic nominee, Mount Pleasant resident Jen Gibson, in the November 6, 2018 general election.

Cunningham won the seat in 2018 in a surprise victory, winning a district Trump had carried by 13 percentage points two years earlier.

Mace faced Mount Pleasant City Councilwoman Kathy Landing and Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox in the June 9 Republican primary.

During her primary campaign, she ran an advertisement stating she would "help President Trump take care of our veterans", and in which Vice President Mike Pence called her "an extraordinary American with an extraordinary lifetime of accomplishments—past, present and future."

In 2019, Mace successfully advocated for the inclusion of exceptions for rape and incest in a bill for a six-week abortion ban that passed the South Carolina state house.

In a speech on the state house floor, Mace revealed that she had been raped at age 16.

She has said she opposes abortion but does not believe the government has the right to deny the procedure to a victim of rape or incest.

Mace co-sponsored a bill to oppose offshore drilling off South Carolina's coast.

She opposed President Donald Trump's plan to offer oil drilling leases off South Carolina beaches.

The Conservation Voters of South Carolina gave Mace a 100% Lifetime rating for her voting record against offshore drilling and seismic testing.

The South Carolina Club for Growth gave Mace its 2019 Tax Payer Hero Award.

In June 2019, Mace announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for South Carolina's 1st congressional district, centered in Charleston, and at the time represented by Democrat Joe Cunningham.

In 2020, Mace was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Republican woman elected to Congress from South Carolina.

In May 2020, Governor Henry McMaster signed Mace's prison reform bill, which ends the shackling of pregnant women in prison, into law.