GOP Congressmember Nancy Mace—Don’t Fall for Her “Moderate” Political Stunts August 6, 2023
Far too many pundits and members of major media outlets are always looking for a “moderate”/ sane Republican who will take on Trump’s insane MAGA cult. Disappointed again and again, they foolishly keep searching for that one “Red” legislator who will turn around the Trump-owned GOP. Media and pundits are now focusing upon GOP Congressmember Nancy Mace. Many are prominently playing up her words. Mace has told fellow “Team Red” colleagues to go slow on impeaching Democratic President Biden. As we all know, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has recently ramped up talk of impeaching Biden with no evidence to humor his far-right base. That extremist base was key to making him Speaker after a 15-ballot vote. On July 30, 2023 “Fox News Sunday” interview with Shannon Bream, Rep. Mace stated that discussion of impeaching President Biden puts Republicans’ (House) majority at risk in 2024 by jeopardizing members who represent districts that President Biden won in 2020. Mace specifically said, “I will tell you, every time we walk the plank (by discussing impeaching Biden), we are putting moderate members, members in Biden-won districts at risk for 2024. We are putting the majority at risk. And it’s not just impeachment that does that. Other issues, like abortion, etc., also put those members on the plank (thehill.com, Fortinsky, 7/30/23).” Wow! A GOPer who understands math, a discipline like science that many of her fellow Republicans ignore or deny. Yes, Democrats need 5 seats to take back the House and 18 GOPers are serving in districts that Biden won in 2020, which puts them at risk. In addition, 5 states, according to recent Supreme Court decisions, including Alabama and Louisiana, can have districts redrawn to help Democrats win before Election Day 2024 (See DCCC Memorandum, Merz, J., dccc.org). Yes, Cong. Mace is right on this matter. However, in no way can she be considered the GOP’s “moderate” savior. Meet the real Cong. Mace.
Second-term Congressmember Nancy Mace (45) currently represents South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District (CD). The present SC 1st reaches from Hilton Head to mid-coast SC and ends at the Santee River. The SC 1st includes parts of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester, and Beaufort Counties (wiki, Cohen & Cook 2022 Political Almanac). Charleston was one of the major cities in the original 13 Colonies. This city, with its beautiful homes, remains a top tourist destination. Initially, it was dominated by a slaveholding aristocracy that fired on Fort Sumter in April, 1861 which started the Civil War. Hilton Head is known for its posh condominiums and golfing resorts which helped increase Beaufort County’s population (Cohen & Cook 2022). Politically, the Palmetto State 1st is comfortably GOP with a Cook PVI (Partisan Voting Index) of R+7. Once the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts passed, this majority white district turned from Jim Crow Dixiecrat to conservative Republican because of Nixon’s and SC GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond’s Southern Strategy. Presently, the 1st is 68.2% White and about 17% Black (census.gov, cookpolitical.com, 2022, rollcall.com, Macagnone, 5/15/23). However, the GOP conservatism of the SC 1st, is more economic and less cultural, unlike that of most of SC. Voters in the 1st CD oppose offshore drilling, favor environmental restrictions, and are for curbing urban sprawl. More northern retirees have settled in the 1st as well. In 2020, Trump won the 1st by just 6 points, 52%-46%, his lowest performance in SC’s six Republican districts (Cohen & Cook 2022).
A native of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, (formerly named Fort Bragg, after a Confederate general), Mace’s father was a U.S. Army Brigadier General who had previously served as commander of cadets at SC’s The Citadel military school. Mace herself became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel where she obtained a 1999 Bachelor’s degree in business administration. Mace later wrote a book about her Citadel experience, “In the Company of Men: A Woman at the Citadel.” She earned a 2004 Masters degree in journalism and mass communication at the University of Georgia (Cohen & Cook 2022). Before starting her political career, Mace went into business and ran what she called a multi-service consulting group in Charleston. Her clients included local GOP candidates including future SC Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott (Cohen & Cook 2022). In 2012, Mace volunteered for the campaign of presidential and far-right candidate Texan Cong. Ron Paul, the father of right-wing KY GOP U.S. Senator Rand Paul (See Catanese, D., 8/06/13, damemagazine.com). In the 2014 GOP primary, Mace joined several candidates who challenged SC incumbent GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham, a strong conservative, was challenged by Mace as having “a track record of trusting his government and working to grow his government.” Mace finished fifth out of the six candidates unsuccessfully challenging Graham and received just 6% of the vote (Cohen & Cook 2022). In 2016, Mace supported Donald for president as that campaign’s coalitions director and field director (postandcourier.com, Byrd, C., 1/20/18). Mace won a special election to the SC state House of Representatives in 2017 and won a full term in 2018.
In the SC House, Mace cited her own experience as a teen rape victim. She used that argument to successfully add a rape and incest exception to a bill that otherwise banned abortion when there was a fetal heartbeat. Still, Mace generally opposes abortion (Byrd, C., postandcourier.com, 5/14/19). She broke with Trump over allowing offshore oil drilling off SC’s beaches. Because of this stand, the League of Conservation Voters gave her a perfect record of support. Mace also enacted a bill that ended the shackling of pregnant mothers in state prisons (Cohen & Cook 2022). In 2020, Mace won the House GOP primary. IMHO, when issues closely affected Mace as a woman or attacked S. Carolina’s coast in the Charleston area, a matter affecting her own district, she abandoned the GOP line. Otherwise, she was a reliable conservative vote. Plus, these stands made her look good when running for Congress against a Democrat. In the 11/2020 general election, Mace faced first-term Rep. Joe Cunningham who was the first Democrat to win the Palmetto 1st since 1980. During a debate, Cunningham attacked Mace for missing dozens of state votes. Mace, who was a single mother then home-schooling her two children, called this criticism of her a “personal attack for which he should be disqualified.” When Cunnigham attacked Mace’s politics as “partisan, toxic, and divisive,” Mace trotted out the standard GOP “bogeywoman,” Nancy Pelosi. She called Cunningham a complete follower of then Speaker Pelosi. Mace’s motto was, “Send a new Nancy to Congress.” Although the Columbia-based “State” newspaper endorsed Cunningham, it noted this decision was “a close call” and stated that Mace was “a highly impressive candidate unafraid to stand up to powerful leaders in her own party.” In 2018, Cunningham beat his GOP rival 51%-49%. In 2020, he lost to Mace by the same 2%, 51%-49% score. In 2022, Mace was easily re-elected, winning 56% of the vote (Cohen & Cook 2022, CQ Cong. At Your Fingertips, 118th Congress).
In the House, Mace calls herself a “Caucus of One,” pretending that she is a “moderate.” She is nothing of the sort. She often styles herself as a “maverick independent” in the mold of Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVA). What a “great” role model! Cong. Mace, although she now and then publicly criticizes her own party, has built the voting record of a mostly reliable Republican foot soldier, and makes sure she gets television hits and social media clicks for it. While she talks this “I can criticize my hard-right party” game, Rep. Mace has, via political trolling, found ways to signal to the MAGA base that she has not abandoned it. “Press release moderate” Mace has repeatedly and baselessly accused the Biden family of being involved in “prostitution rings (nytimes.com, Karni, A., 5/09/23).” That’s a mavericky “moderate?” Get real! Remember all the hullabaloo Cong. Mace received for being pro-environmental in the SC state legislature? Well, in the House, Mace has made a near 360-degree turn. Now that she has won a congressional seat, Cong. Mace does not have a perfect environmental score. Far from it. The LCV, League of Conservation Voters, gave her a 2022 16% score and a lifetime near basement 26% rating (scorecard.lcv.org). Cong. Mace threatened to oppose the House rules package for the GOP majority, but in the end, fell into line like a “good soldier” and supported it (nytimes.com, Karni). Cong. Mace published an op-ed in which she stated she was a “hard no” against the debt ceiling bill that Speaker McCarthy and Biden had negotiated to keep the U.S. and world economy from sliding into chaos. She also fired off a blunt text to GOP leader Elise Stefanik (R-NY) featuring two “F-word” bombs that showed her opposition to this deal. In the end, she voted for the debt ceiling bill deal. She claimed she received promises from McCarthy about holding future votes. Mace claimed that she was, with these tactics, “driving the debate” to push her issues. Many conservatives in her own district and liberals and moderates think differently. David Rubin, a retiree in her district aptly said, “You live around Nancy long enough, she will talk about being bipartisan and reaching across the aisle and working together until the cows come home. When it comes to the actual votes, she always sticks with the party (Karni, nytimes.com).”
There is more. Cong. Mace voted to certify the election and strongly condemned Demagogue Donald after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. She still signed a letter that gave credence to Trump’s false allegations of electoral fraud (Budryk, 1/03/21). She did not join the small group of GOPers who supported his impeachment, the remedy that truly counted. Again, Mace’s talk is cheap. She does her best to avoid discussing Donald, despite his being the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner. However, she states, “I’ll support the nominee.” She, obviously, is not a part of the “Never Trump” group. “Moderate” (LOL) Mace ultimately joined the majority of her fellow GOPers in voting to oust vocal Trump opponent Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her GOP House leadership post, a move which helped her lose her seat in the WY GOP primary. True, Cong. Mace supports improved alert systems and stronger background checks on guns. She also called FL Gov. DeSantis’ ban on abortion after six weeks a position that “isn’t the way to change hearts and minds (nytimes.com, Karni).” Translation: This stand hurts our party, a key issue for her. In any event “moderate” Mace, supposedly “so worried” about how abortion would hurt her party in elections and alienate many of her constituents, nevertheless voted for legislation which would subject doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties. “Moderate” Mace additionally co-sponsored legislation that would ban transgender women and girls from participating in athletic programs designated for women. And on fiscal issues, Cong. Mace aligns herself with the extremist Freedom Caucus (Karni, nytimes.com, 5/09/23). There is talk that Cong. Mace wants to run for the Senate, which she pretends to ignore. An article that her aides half-jokingly pass along floats her as a potential running VP running mate to former NJ GOP Gov. Chris Christie. In any event, if Mace has further ambitions, she needs to push a “moderate” image, despite her overwhelming right-wing record. Mace, like many GOPers, voted against Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, calling it a “socialist wish list.” That legislation provided a federal grant to help Charleston’s bus system. Democrats rightfully attacked her for attending a 6/28/23 press conference in support of this bus system grant. Now, Mace wants to take credit for something she voted against, similar to what many GOPers did when they opposed this bill and Obama’s stimulus package (See politicalwire.com,Goddard, 6/28/23). Mace is, therefore, another proud member of the “GHP,” G rand H ypocrite P arty.
The present configuration of the SC 1st CD was redrawn to help the GOP by removing 30,000 Black residents. This redistricting has been challenged by an individual voter and the state’s NAACP. In a 1/2023 decision, a three-judge court agreed that this most recently redrawn Palmetto 1st violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment by removing these Blacks from Charleston County to keep the 1st CD’s population just 17% Black. That court held that the Black vote had been improperly diluted and that Black neighborhoods had been illegally split. This redrawing, those judges said, would keep a “desired partisan tilt” in the GOP’s favor. These judges originally ordered SC to draw a new map by March, 2023 but later stayed that order pending an appeal that was granted by the US Supreme Ct. SCOTUS (The Supreme Court of the United States) will likely hear arguments in its next term which starts in October, 2023 and decide the case by June, 2024 before the election. If SCOTUS rules for the NAACP and the individual voter that challenged the 1st’s composition, the Palmetto 1st boundaries will have to be redrawn and this district will be less tilted to help GOP Cong. Mace. Mace barely won in 2020. After the 1st was redrawn to be more conservative, Mace’s 2020 2% margin became a lopsided 14% one. Mace could then face a tough 2024 challenge and could possibly lose (nytimes.com, Karni, 5/09/23, roll.com, Macagnone, M., 5/15/23). Democrats must field a strong candidate to take on fake “moderate” Mace in 2024. Remember, all the Democrats need to take back the House in 2024 are a net five seats.