Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace has entered the race for governor of South Carolina. Mace, who in the past has declared herself “Donald Trump in high heels,” has promised to be a “super MAGA governor,” who will “ban pronouns in the classroom,” going on to say: “I want kids coming home with A and B (grades), not they/them.”
Mace has been in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2021, and won her third term representing South Carolina’s 1st District last year. She made her run official during a speech on Monday at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston. The Citadel is South Carolina’s military college, where Nancy Mace was the first woman to graduate in 1999.
“I’m running for governor because South Carolina doesn’t need another empty suit and needs a governor who will fight for you and your values,” Mace says at the event. “South Carolina needs a governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what it takes.”
Mace continues, “I didn’t come to join the club. They don’t want me, and I don’t want them.” Mace prattled off a list of hard-line policies on topics including immigration, tax, and trans rights, saying she would oppose the so-called gender cult and halt the “radical gender agenda,” as well as tackle “woke ideology” in schools.
After Trump’s re-election in 2024, Mace, who once identified as a moderate, has become one of the most outspoken opponents of transgender rights in the government.
Once, Mace initially billed herself as a moderate Republican who was part of a “Caucus of One,” telling The Independent in 2023 that she was “pro-baby, pro-gun, pro-pot, pro-gay.” Mace initially worked on legislation to decriminalize cannabis and voted with Democrats to legalize protections for same-gender and interracial married couples. But after her primary win, she moved significantly to the right, and Mace’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people has dramatically shifted over the past year.
Nancy Mace introduced a resolution to restrict the use of single-gender spaces based on “corresponding biological sex,” in the Capitol building in Washington, DC, later admitting it was specifically aimed at Democratic colleague Sarah McBride, who became the first trans person in Congress after winning the election for Delaware’s at-large district. McBride described the ban as a “blatant attempt from right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”
Furthermore, Mace has a history of proudly using slurs when referring to trans people, including 20-year-old Harley Hicks, a college student. When speaking at an event at the University of South Carolina, hosted by the university’s chapter of conservative group Turning Point USA, Mace repeated the slur “tr**ny” several times after she was asked to apologise by the college student for using the word the first time.
Given the number of opponents she has within the GOP, Nancy Mace will most likely need to win the support of President Trump. Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the race, but her announcement ad contains a clip of Trump praising her. South Carolina’s gubernatorial primary will take place in June 2026.
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