Four controversial moments Mace has faced ahead of 2024 reelection fight

by · Washington Examiner

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has found herself entangled in a series of controversies that could hurt her bid for reelection in 2024.

The third-term representative is no stranger to the spotlight, as she has increasingly sought out high-profile interviews and taken on a prominent position as a bomb-thrower in the last year. She won reelection in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District easily last year, but as she continues to show a willingness to break with her party, that gap could close with voters growing weary of a chaotic GOP majority.

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Staff exodus

Earlier this week, the Washington Examiner reported three staffers are preparing to leave Mace's office. Her deputy chief of staff, Richard Chalkey, and her legislative director, Randal Meyer, resigned last week, effective at the end of the month. Her chief of staff, Dan Hanlon, was fired Friday after her former chief of staff, Mara Mellstrom, left at the start of the month.

A source said working in Mace's office was a "toxic work environment" and suggested more staffers could leave this month. The source told the Washington Examiner there could be a complete staff turnover by January.

Following Tuesday's departures, a source told the Washington Examiner that Mace will have lost six staffers since October.

Policy, politics, problems

Mace is no stranger to breaking with her party on plank topics, including abortion. She has pushed Republicans to work together to avoid extremism on policies around birth control and bans on the procedure. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Mace has said the party “cannot be a**holes to women,” speaking to CNN's Dana Bash in September.

Alienating herself from a majority of fellow Republicans on the matter, Mace has encouraged the GOP to embrace more access to birth control and gynecological care.

“We have been tone-deaf on this issue since the time that Roe was overturned,” Mace told reporters in January. “We buried our heads in the sand. … We didn’t have any policy alternatives.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) walks to the House Republican speakership meeting in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill, on Oct. 10, 2023. Mace wore a T-shirt with a large red letter "A," in an apparent reference to The Scarlet Letter, the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mace said it symbolized her being "demonized" for her decision to vote Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) out of the speakership office.

Sleeping on religious constituents

This summer, Mace found herself at the center of more Republican backlash after telling a risqué joke at a prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C.

“When I woke up this morning at 7, Patrick, my fiancé, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed and I was like, ‘No baby we don’t got time for that this morning, I’ve got to get to the prayer breakfast,’ Mace told attendees at the event hosted by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).

“He can wait, I’ll see him later tonight,” Mace added.

Fox News host Sean Hannity brought up the remarks while having her on his show, telling the South Carolina conservative, “We appreciate you coming to this show instead of going home to your fiancé.”

No mercy for McCarthy

In perhaps her most disputed move of the year, Mace joined seven Republicans and all House Democrats in a historic vote to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led the motion to vacate McCarthy, which resulted in his removal from the speakership on Oct. 3.

Mace defended her vote in the following weeks, saying McCarthy failed to deliver on legislative promises, despite throwing House Republicans into chaos as the chamber struggled to elect a new speaker after numerous nominees failed to secure majority support. Mace and the seven other GOP members who voted to oust McCarthy faced a slew of criticism from within the party.

“Those eight people are anarchists and they're chaos caucus members,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), who ran for House speaker and lost.

Mace wore a bright red "A" across her shirt — a reference to The Scarlet Letter, the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne — while attending a closed-doors candidate forum to discuss previous contenders for speaker, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

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“I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week I just had, being a woman up here, and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” Mace told reporters on Oct. 10.

Mace’s position in South Carolina is also threatened by the state’s new congressional map after the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the Republican-drawn map, which critics say is discriminatory toward black voters.