Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, may have heard the death knell for her political career.

After an up-and-down six-year tenure on Capitol Hill, the fiery congresswoman flamed out in her state’s gubernatorial primary.

She will not run for Congress again, she told Politico earlier this month.

‘Headed back to the private sector at the end of this term,’ Mace posted on X last week. ‘When I ran in 2020 I said I’d only serve 3 terms and my time is up. It’s truly been an immense honor.’

Mace finished last in a field of five Republicans, trailing the two leaders by over 14 percentage points. Even in her home county of Charleston, she came in a distant third.

She owned the defeat, changing her private X bio to read, ‘just got my a** kicked in Governors’ race.’

Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson are competing in a runoff for the Republican gubernatorial nomination before facing Democrat Jermaine Johnson in November. 

Mace has endorsed Wilson, but whether she can resist a temptation back into the political limelight remains to be seen. 

Mace spoke positively of Trump during the 2024 Republican National Convention

Trump and Mace exchange greetings in March 2025

Mace had made a bid for President Donald Trump’s endorsement, even labeling herself ‘Trump in high heels’ during a speech early in her gubernatorial campaign. But Trump decided on a late endorsement for Evette instead.

Mace had a turbulent relationship with the President, distancing herself from him after his loss in the 2020 election and the subsequent Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. 

She defeated a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in 2022 before somewhat making nice with the President, eventually endorsing him over South Carolinian presidential candidate Nikki Haley in the 2024 race. 

During Trump’s second term, Mace and the President again parted ways.

The Congresswoman said her administration-defying push for publication of the Epstein files doomed her hopes of a Trump endorsement.

‘I know I put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line when I demanded transparency on the Epstein files,’ Mace wrote on X after Trump endorsed Evette.

‘I demanded it because you deserved the truth – ALL OF IT,’ she continued.

‘If sacrificing my values is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it.’ 

She, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, and former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene all signed a discharge petition last year forcing a House vote on the disclosure of the files.

The subsequent vote in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act was nearly unanimous. 

After Mace’s defeat, only Boebert has a chance of political survival: Massie fell to a Trump-endorsed primary challenger, and Greene resigned. 

Boebert, though she was blisteringly rebuked by Trump, did not face a primary challenge and is expected to keep her seat in November’s general election.

Mace’s career is in jeopardy after she defied President Trump by supporting the Epstein Files Transparency Act

Multiple bizarre incidents have put Mace in headlines over the years

Mace’s campaign was not without other self-inflicted problems. She also made headlines after allegedly cursing out law enforcement at Charleston International Airport last October, saying they were ‘[expletive] incompetent’ for not properly escorting her.

Mace indignantly defended her conduct as an appropriate response to a security lapse.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott condemned her behavior in a Facebook post at the time. 

Mace joined Florida Representative Byron Donalds, Iowa Representative Randy Feenstra, California Representative Eric Swalwell, and several other House members running for their state’s governorship.

Like Mace, Feenstra and Swalwell have failed in their campaigns. Feenstra, despite Trump’s endorsement, lost in his primary to former GOP operative Zach Lahn. 

Swalwell was forced to forfeit both gubernatorial ambitions and his House seat in April after explosive sexual assault allegations, which he denies.

Mace’s path forward in politics is unclear at best, and completely blocked at worst – potentially ending a dramatic political career that made her a media darling on Capitol Hill.

She was one of a handful of Republicans to help unseat former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a one-time ally who afterwards supported a primary challenger against her. 

Mace in November 2023, a month after she helped oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House

Mace has made fighting sexual violence against women a focus of her tenure on the Hill

McCarthy, evidently still salty, recently told the Washington Post that he hoped Mace ‘gets the help she needs,’ saying her ‘political and personal life [had] unraveled.’

Early last year, Mace took to the House floor to accuse her ex-fiance and several other South Carolina men of drugging, filming, and raping her and other women. The men denied the accusations.

Years earlier, Mace had revealed during a debate on the South Carolina House floor that she had been raped at the age of 16.

In 1999, Mace became the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, a prominent military college in the Palmetto State, despite previously dropping out of high school and working as a Waffle House server before getting her diploma.

In 2020, Mace gained entry into the U.S. Congress by unseating the Democrat who had represented her district.

‘People keep asking me: “Will you get revenge on Trump for ending your political career?”‘ she said on X last week. 

‘The answer is yes. I’ll be adding to the unemployment number in January.’ 

Mace’s office did not respond to outreach for comment.