How Capitol Hill Drama Made A Mess For Nancy Mace Ahead Of Her Next Election

Mace faces a tough primary after voting to oust former Speaker House Kevin McCarthy, who is quietly backing challenges to the Republicans who helped end his career.

Things seemed to be going well for Nancy Mace two years ago. The South Carolina Republican was a rising star in Congress and had just fended off a primary from a Trump-backed opponent. She was on TV a lot. And that winter, Mace delivered a searing roast of her colleagues at D.C.’s annual press club dinner, wearing a half-sheer, floor-length black gown.

But since her unexpected vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker in October, Mace hasn’t been having such a good time. She’s become embroiled in a nasty public feud with the now-former speaker. Many of Mace’s staffers abandoned her and then brutally trashed her to the media. Her former chief of staff weighed trying to primary her.

Congress is a place where lawmakers with big egos take nakedly self-serving risks to become famous. But Mace may be an example of what happens when that springboard to fame goes awry.

The two-term Republican, known for being the first woman to graduate from the once all-male Citadel military college, took a chance when she aligned herself with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and the other six attention-seeking House Republicans who forced a vote on McCarthy’s speakership. The move plunged the House into leaderless chaos for three weeks — and for Mace, set into motion a staff revolt, a seemingly endless cycle of bad press and, now, a tough reelection.

Mace faces a primary Tuesday that will test how much goodwill this all has cost her in South Carolina’s coastal low country. Mace is locked in a race against Catherine Templeton, an official in former Gov. Nikki Haley’s administration who entered with a nudge from McCarthy’s advisors. Templeton claims Mace “flip-flops for fame.”