Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a once moderate Republican turned Trump loyalist, officially launched her bid for governor of South Carolina on Monday.
Currently serving her third term in Congress, Mace, 47, was once a Trump critic. Now, per the Associated Press, she calls herself “Trump in high heels” and promises to be a “super Maga governor” in the largely Republican state.
Mace’s video announcement launching her bid for the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary on Monday focused heavily on her pro-Trump credentials, featuring a clip of the president calling her a “fighter”. She calls for a “zero-tolerance approach to crime”, cutting the state income tax to zero and stopping “the radical gender agenda” and “woke ideology” in South Carolina’s schools.
The new campaign cements her Trump-era transformation. The representative for South Carolina’s first congressional district was one of seven House Republicans who signed a letter in 2021 saying Congress did not have the authority to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Trump’s favor. She was also highly critical of his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Trump subsequently endorsed a primary opponent to Mace’s 2022 congressional campaign, which she ultimately still won, calling her an “absolutely terrible candidate”.
She has since become a fierce ally of the US president, especially on so-called culture war issues, such as transgender rights, and his extreme immigration policies. Trump and the freshly Maga-fied Mace went on to endorse each other in the 2024 election.
Just last week, Mace was criticised for disclosing that she loves to cruise the web for videos of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents dragging people into custody, saying she “can think of nothing more American”. She told Fox Report Weekend host Jon Scott that she was championing proposed legislation that would “defund and take tax breaks away” from US cities that restrict how much local authorities cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Prior to that, Mace seized national headlines through her vocal opposition to transgender women being allowed to use women’s restrooms. Though as recently as 2023 she had described herself as “pro transgender rights”, she has since made being anti-trans rights a core part of her political personality. Mace has, for instance, repeatedly directly attacked the first openly trans member of CongressUS House member Sarah McBride of Delaware, who first took office in January. Last year she targeted McBride by introducing a resolution to ban transgender women from using the women’s restrooms at the Capitol.
“We will not fund any schools that allow biological men in women’s bathrooms or locker rooms, that allow men to compete in women’s sports, or schools that push gender ideology,” she added.
She now enters a crowded GOP primary in which competition for Trump’s endorsement – and the backing of his base of supporters – is expected to be fierce, and in which there isn’t yet a clear frontrunner. Among the other candidates are the state’s attorney general Alan Wilson, its lieutenant governor Pamela Evette, and US representative Ralph Norman, one of the most conservative members of the House. The incumbent governor isn’t allowed to seek another term.
“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 during a launch event at the Citadel military college in Charleston. She became the first woman to graduate from the Citadel in 1999. “South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what it takes,” Mace said.
