Picture: Win McNamee/Getty Photos
South Carolina has a repute for soiled politics. Many individuals nonetheless keep in mind the 2000 Republican presidential major within the Palmetto State, when a well-orchestrated smear marketing campaign claiming that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate Black child reportedly helped George W. Bush win the competition and kill McCain’s momentum within the race. In 2009, then-Governor Mark Sanford’s profession derailed when he was caught participating in an extramarital affair whereas he claimed to be off mountain climbing within the Appalachian Path. Then in 2010, a GOP gubernatorial major in South Carolina grew to become dominated by claims from a blogger and a lobbyist that that they had extramarital affairs with fast-rising candidate Nikki Haley. The rumormongering in all probability backfired; Haley was elected governor, then resigned throughout her second time period to function Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
In 2026, South Carolina may have its first wide-open GOP gubernatorial major since Haley’s first win. And it certain seems to be just like the state will get dragged into the sewer once more, significantly now that U.S. consultant Nancy Mace has entered the competition.
Mace is an advanced individual. My colleague Rebecca Traister as soon as wrote that “maybe no elected official embodies the contortions of the fashionable Republican girl greater than Mace.” Mace was the primary girl to graduate from the South Carolina army school The Citadel. She has depicted herself as a task mannequin for conservative ladies who wish to challenge each femininity and power, whereas concurrently claiming to have been persecuted for each her gender and her ideology (she as soon as wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a “scarlet letter” after voting to remove Kevin McCarthy’s gavel). She remodeled herself from a Trump critic to a Trump sycophant virtually in a single day. Mace has extra just lately gained consideration for her transphobia. She launched a marketing campaign towards a Home colleague, transgender girl Sarah McBride, earlier than the Delaware consultant was even sworn in, sponsoring a decision to “ban transgender ladies from utilizing feminine restrooms contained in the Capitol.” Mace has additionally been conspicuous in incongruously linking her transphobia to her private historical past as a rape sufferer:
Mace has typically described the phantom menace of transgender ladies in sports activities as an enormous menace to ladies. However essentially the most notable factor about Mace’s transphobia is that she is claiming her personal state is a hotbed of deviancy. Simply previous to the announcement of her candidacy, Mace instructed Fox Information that she “could also be pressured to run for governor as a result of I can’t watch my stunning, pink state of South Carolina go woke” and that “we’ve acquired this gender bending ideology in schools and universities throughout South Carolina, and we’ve acquired to finish it.”
That is in all probability not going to go over effectively with South Carolina’s term-limited present governor, Henry McMaster. McMaster is considered Trump’s finest buddy within the state; he broke with Haley and U.S. senator Tim Scott to endorse the mogul in 2016, then led a legion of South Carolina politicians in backing Trump towards Haley within the 2024 primaries. McMaster has but to endorse anybody within the GOP major, however a number of candidates (together with his two-term lieutenant governor, Pamela Evette) are extra probably than Mace to obtain his blessing. Extra importantly, McMaster has Trump’s ear, and Trump’s endorsement within the major would possibly effectively be dispositive.
An early signal of the tone Mace will strike within the gubernatorial contest is her blizzard of assaults on one other long-time McMaster and Trump ally, four-term state legal professional basic Alan Wilson, because the South Carolina Each day Gazette reported:
At the beginning of the yr she started calling Wilson a “do-nothing legal professional basic.”
Then in February, Mace took to the Home flooring and accused 4 males, together with her ex-fiancé, of “a few of the most heinous crimes towards ladies possible” throughout a virtually hour-long ready speech.
The congresswoman mentioned she found hundreds of images taken with hidden cameras in addition to recordings the “predators” manufactured from themselves sexually assaulting ladies over years. She was among the many victims …
Mace additionally accused Wilson of not addressing the crimes towards her and different ladies.
Extra just lately, she mentioned this of her fellow Republican officeholder when he introduced his personal candidacy:
“South Carolina’s acquired a alternative: we are able to hold electing politicians who shield youngster rapists and canopy up homicide circumstances … or we are able to elect somebody who kicks in doorways and cleans up the mess,” Mace wrote on X.
Mace additionally claimed Wilson’s occasion was “fifty ft from a faculty so none of Alan Wilson’s supporters on the intercourse offender registry may make it.”
Yikes. Apart from her expertise for self-promotion and her willingness to play very soiled, Mace’s fundamental benefit as a gubernatorial candidate is a base within the Lowcountry area; her fundamental rivals are from upstate (Evette, State Senator Josh Kimbrall, and Home Freedom Caucus congressman Ralph Norman) or from the Midlands area (Wilson). This, paired together with her identify recognition, may give Mace a ticket to a runoff (South Carolina requires a majority vote for celebration nominations). The media-hungry Mace had the lead in an early major ballot, launched final week, albeit with simply 16 % (in comparison with 15 % for Wilson).
One risk that might mess up her plans, nonetheless, is a rumored comeback bid by none aside from Sanford, who as soon as represented the congressional seat Mace holds in the present day. A contest that features each Mace and Sanford may positively get slightly soiled.
