Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace will run for South Carolina Governor, she announced Monday after teasing the decision last week.
Currently serving her third term representing South Carolina’s 1st District, Mace is joining a highly competitive Republican Primary where candidates are vying for a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Speaking at a launch event Monday at The Citadel military college in Charleston, where Mace was the first woman in the school’s history to graduate, the former public relations consultant said South Carolina doesn’t need another “empty suit.”
“South Carolina needs a Governor who will drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what it takes,” Mace said.
Mace further told the Associated Press her goals include ending the South Carolina’s income tax, protecting women and children, a likely reference to her well-known activism targeting transgender people’s access to bathrooms and sports aligned with their chosen gender, improving energy options, and expanding school choice.
“God’s not done with South Carolina, and neither am I,” Mace wrote in an X post announcing the launch. “You and me. Our mission begins now.”
Current Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is leaving office due to term limits. Other Republicans running for the GOP nomination include Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell.
While Trump has not endorsed, he did have positive feedback for the firebrand Mace.
“She’s a fighter, I know about that,” Trump said in a clip added to Mace’s campaign launch video.
However, the relationship between Mace and the President has not always been great. Mace, early in her political career, said Trump needed to be held accountable for the events that unfolded during the Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021.
Trump further snubbed Mace in 2022 when he endorsed her Republican competitor during the GOP Primary for her current seat in the U.S. House, with Trump labelling Mace an “absolutely terrible candidate.”
Mace, last week, teased her announcement. She had told Fox News Weekend she would make a decision whether to run for Governor within days.
“I believe I may be forced to run for Governor because I can’t watch my beautiful red state of South Carolina go woke. It’s gone woke over the last couple of years,” she said at the time.
She also fired a shot at Wilson, who launched his campaign for Governor last month.
“This is a two-man race, if I get in, between me and Alan Wilson, the South Carolina Attorney General, who likes to put pedophiles on trial and give them one day in jail served,” Mace said. “I don’t believe the people of South Carolina will go for that.”
Mace was referring to reports of several individuals convicted of sex crimes against children who were sentenced to single-day jail terms.
Currently, there are no Democratic candidates running for Governor in the ruby red state.
