United States: South Carolina Republican representative Nancy Mace is already running to become governor in that state in the 2026 primaries.
In a speech, while kicking off her campaign Monday morning, Mace stated that the state is “tired of politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face, and then vanish when it’s time to lead.”
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“I’m not one of them,” she added.
“I’m running for governor because South Carolina doesn’t need another empty suit. It needs a governor who will fight for you and your values,” she continued, as CNN News reported.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is running for governor, entering a GOP primary in which competition for President Trump's endorsement — and the backing of his base of supporters — is expected to be fierce. https://t.co/pg0QQ3WI2J
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) August 4, 2025
She was proposing a platform in which she would freeze the general fund spending in the state at approximately USD 11.6 billion, requiring every state agency to trim its budget 3 percent or 4 percent every year, increase access to vocation or trade schools and defund any office, agency or department that fails to abide by the state and federal law. Mace is in her third term in Congress.
A critic of Donald Trump at one point, she is now a US presidential ally. In her video announcement, she paid a lot of attention to her pro-Trump bona fides, with a clip of the president saying Mace was a fighter.
She will also go against a former prosecutor in the Republican primary, whom she accused of botching an investigation into her former fiancé, whom she accused earlier this year of abusing her.
The other Republican primary candidates are the Lt. Gov. of the state, Pamela Evette, and the member of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Ralph Norman. Mace of 47 became the first woman cadet to graduate from The Citadel, South Carolina military college, in 1999.
She had her initial entry into public office in 2018 as a South Carolina House representative and was then elected into Congress in 2020 after flipping a Democratic district.
In 2021, Mace, one of seven Republicans in the House, signed a letter that said Congress lacked the power to reverse the results of the 2020 election in favor of Trump, and she was extremely angry with Trump for her involvement in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021.
According to Mace’s statement in 2021, “I want to be a new voice for the Republican Party, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve spoken out so strongly against the president, against these QAnon conspiracy theorists that led us in a constitutional crisis,” CNN reported.
Still, she called the impeachment process of Trump flawed and hasty and voted against impeaching him over his involvement in instigating an insurrection.