J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is pictured at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
CNN
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CNN projects that South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace will win the Republican primary in her state’s 1st Congressional District, fending off pressure from two challengers and allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose party voted for Mace to step down.
Mace is expected to win a majority of votes on Tuesday and avoid a June 25 primary runoff in his bid to win a third term in his coastal Charleston-area district.
Tuesday’s election results were a long-awaited victory for Mace, who has become an increasingly polarizing figure in the party. Mace has faced a wave of criticism over the past few months, including accusations that he created a toxic work environment by stoking anger over his and seven other Republicans’ removal of McCarthy from his position as speaker in October.
A few days after the move, Mace was seen wearing a white T-shirt with a red “A” on the front, a reference to the novel “The Scarlet Letter,” which Mace said demonized his own vote.
McCarthy sought revenge at the ballot box, and his allies spent millions of dollars attacking Mace during the primary. Mace and groups supporting her portrayed her main opponent, Katherine Templeton, a former South Carolina cabinet secretary under Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, as a McCarthy puppet.
Mace has faced criticism for his deteriorating relationship with former President Donald Trump. After the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Mace told CNN that Trump’s “legacy was wiped out that day.” Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Trump endorsed Mace’s opponent, Katie Arrington, in the primaries. One of Mace’s main supporters in the primaries was Haley, who campaigned alongside Mace and appeared on his behalf in television ads. Mace ultimately defeated Arrington by eight points.
Two years later, Mace endorsed Trump over Haley ahead of South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary. The former president endorsed Mace in March, calling her a “powerful conservative voice.”
Mace was first elected in 2020, narrowly defeating Democratic incumbent Joe Cunningham. Two years later, after the district was redrawn to favor Republicans, Mace handily won reelection.
A three-judge panel concluded last year that the district’s new boundaries constituted unconstitutional racially biased redistricting, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the new maps last month, rejecting arguments that state lawmakers had improperly used race to improve Republican victories.
