U.S. Representative Nancy Mace (R-1st Congressional District, SC) – often covered in Qnotes for her loud mouth antics and odd anti-LGBTQ+ viewpoints – has clearly had a storied career.
She was the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, South Carolina’s military college.
Politically, her career began with volunteering for Rand Paul in 2014. She ran, unsuccessfully, against Sen. Lindsey Graham that same year. And she supported Donald Trump in his first bid for the presidency in 2016 by working as a coalition director and field director.
In 2018, she took office in her current position as one of South Carolina’s congressional representatives.
Now she wants to follow Henry McMaster (R) as the Governor of South Carolina. She is one in a field of seven candidates vying for the chance to run against the winner of the Democratic primary.
South Carolina’s primary election for both parties is just weeks away, scheduled for June 9. At this point, none of the Republicans have been able to secure a Trump endorsement, including Mace, whose relationship with the President seems to be on-again, off-again.
That’s not particularly surprising, considering Mace has a track record of frequently changing her mind on hot-button topics.
In 2021, she posted on X: “I strongly support LGBTQ rights. No one should be discriminated against. Religious liberty, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist. I’m also a constitutionalist. We have to ensure anti-discrimination laws don’t violate religious freedom.”
In 2025, however, Mace introduced the Gender Affirming Child Abuse Prevention Act legislation, supporting and advancing President Trump’s mission to end gender-affirming medical care for minors. The legislation dovetailed with Trump’s Executive Order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
Last year, one of Mace’s senior advisors, Austin McCubbin, who had been Trump’s South Carolina director in the 2024 campaign, accused Mace of aligning with the anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party.
According to a December 2, 2025, article in The State newspaper, McCubbin, in a post on X, said, “When I talked to Nancy last Wednesday, it became clear she has fully embraced the Rand Paul PAC.”
McCubbin resigned his position as a senior adviser to Mace’s campaign.
Mace also earned Trump’s ire when she called for the release of the Epstein files. Axios recently reported a source close to the White House as saying that Mace “sabotaged Trump when it mattered most.”
Despite the lack of endorsement, Mace’s policy positions continue to represent the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. She wants to remove all Sanctuary loopholes in current South Carolina law and, in fact, effectively ended the career of Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano, who supported sanctuary efforts.
According to the Greenville News, Mace, in a recent appearance at First Monday (a monthly gathering of Republicans from the Greenville, South Carolina area) reaffirmed her support of Trump and said the nation was facing a “spiritual battle.” In addition, she referred to California as “satanic evil” because of its progressive policies on gender identity.
As of this report, polling shows Mace in a tight battle with SC Attorney General Alan Wilson and a very narrow lead over South Carolina Lt. Governor Pamela Evette as the state moves toward the primary.
Without an endorsement from Trump, the potential Republican candidate remains largely unclear.