There is something special in the political world about seeing a friend succeed. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Nancy Mace for over a decade, as an aspiring office seeker, out of office, in office, in favor with DC, out of favor with DC, defeated in a primary, and once again successful in a primary. Introduced to her first by this website I met her in 2013 when she was planning to challenge Senator Graham. While a decade can certainly refine someone through trials and tribulations, I can testify that Nancy remains fundamentally the same person that she was then. And that raw authenticity is why the primary voters of South Carolina’s First District nominated her for a third time.
Living life authentically both attracts and retains friends while also enraging your foes. Nancy Mace has in her time as a state legislator and Member of Congress carved out a niche that matches her instincts and confounds those wishing their elected officials came and stayed in a box. Nancy’s personally conservative but libertarian leaning instincts are the perfect fit for the First District, while also confounding for the most tribal individuals in the LowCountry and in DC. Those instincts made, for me, her vote to oust Kevin McCarthy both stunning but not surprising. It also invited the greatest challenge of her professional career, and at a time when her personal life was also under duress.
The October 3rd vote that ended Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership was a long time in coming. Political animal that he is, McCarthy is as inauthentic as Nancy is authentic. His lies and chameleon like governance landed him on the bad side of everyone from Liz Cheney to Matt Gaetz. Like too many in Washington McCarthy expected the currency of favors and campaign cash to buy him the loyalty of those he doled out to. Those checks bounced in epic fashion as McCarthy became the first and only Speaker to have the gavel taken from him in American history. To have his “precious” taken from him in so humiliating a fashion led McCarthy to embark on a revenge tour, with Nancy at the top of his list.
Throughout her life Nancy has not done things the easy way and this 2024 primary was no different. Voting for McCarthy would have spared her having over $6 million spent against her. It would’ve also kept her from having Catherine Templeton and her acolytes spread lies about Nancy’s stances on the border and her character at large. A side note, Nancy has been blessed In both 2022 and 2024 to have two of the most unlikeable individuals in South Carolina politics as her opponents: Katie Arrington and Miss Templeton. Where Katie at least was authentically unlikeable for who she is we saw Catherine reprise her 2018 role as being unlikeable for pretending to be something she’s not. This helped make Tuesday night’s result all too sweet for those who want a Member of Congress who is both a good person and true to themselves.
Tuesday’s primary victory, Nancy’s third, is likely the final nail in the coffin for those hoping to oust Mace in a primary. Short of the district being judicially redrawn, unlikely given the recent SCOTUS ruling on South Carolina’s maps, it is hard to envision an individual or group of individuals take her down. Nancy has won as a non-incumbent, running against a Trump backed challenger with the favor of McCarthy’s money, and endorsed by Trump while out of favor with McCarthy’s money. In short, she’s there to stay if she likes for the remainder of this decade. Or, as Joe Cunningham’s 2018 victory opened the door for Nancy to take this shot, 2026 could open statewide doors to consider. And I’ll be cheering her on all the way.