Nancy Mace and Donald Trump’s relationship has come a long way since he called her “crazy,” a “terrible person” and endorsed her opponent in the primary.
Having turned around and endorsed Mace this cycle, Trump and the colorful South Carolina Republican are now “joking” about their longstanding hatred of each other, he said.
“We take it lightly, it’s kind of fun.” I’ve joked that to him I’m the prodigal daughter,” Mace told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. “I like to build relationships, not burn them down.”
Trump had endorsed Mace, now locked in a big-money primary, weeks after she snubbed her former friend Nikki Haley to endorse him.
She and the president now maintain regular contact, and Mace said she would “love” to see him choose South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott as his vice president. ‘He got me to church five years ago and he’s just an amazing human being. He’s going to do wonderful things.’
Mace is one of eight Republicans who voted to unseat former President Kevin McCarthy and now faces his wrath, she says, against her primary rival Catherine Templeton.
Mace, RS.C., speaks at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Nancy Mace and Donald Trump’s relationship has come a long way since he called her “crazy,” a “terrible person” and endorsed her opponent in the primary.
‘We project [McCarthy] “He’s going to spend between $4 million and $5 million on the primary to try to buy this seat.”
Mace said the former president’s political career is “down the drain” and he is now dedicated to getting revenge on the Republicans who voted to overthrow him.
‘Hwe go against donald trump the candidate, goes against the party, since I am the incumbent. And I think he’s doing this to divide the party, destroy it. And it is very harmful,’ said the congresswoman.
Mace is defending his Charleston-area seat against front-runner Templeton, a former state agency director, and political newcomer Bill Young.
Mace said Templeton’s deeply conservative views and anti-abortion stance would cause them to lose the general election if she was successful in the primary. “She was the last person they asked and the only one who said yes,” Mace said.
“I don’t follow the party line,” he said. “Forty percent of our electorate are independent voters…I represent a pro-choice district.”
McCarthy turned against me someone who officially opposes all exceptions. Oppose the exceptions for rape, incest, exceptions, oppose the exceptions for the life of the mother. So if you’re a young woman with an ectopic pregnancy, she’s fine with you dying. She is fine. She’s on record saying that you should basically die.
Mace is one of eight Republicans who voted to unseat former President Kevin McCarthy and now faces his wrath, she says, at primary rival Catherine Templeton.
Mace is defending his Charleston-area seat against front-runner Templeton, a former state agency head (above), and political newcomer Bill Young.
Mace has made a name for herself in women’s issues.
“In any case we have a very slim majority and [McCarthy] He did a damn job in Cycle 22. We lost seats we should have won if we hadn’t buried our heads in the sand on post-Roe abortion.’
Life on Capitol Hill was “lonely” after she voted to fire McCarthy, Mace said. But she saw it as a “unifying event”: All Republicans rallied behind now-President Mike Johnson after three frantic, speakerless weeks.
Johnson has since lost more Republican votes than McCarthy on an override motion (11 to McCarthy’s eight), but he kept his job thanks to help from Democrats.
Mace once said that “Trump’s entire legacy was erased” during the riots on January 6, 2021. He told staff he wanted rioters to punch him in the face so he could be “the face of the anti- Trump.”
Rep. Nancy Mace photographed with Donald Trump while working on his campaign in 2016, before being blacklisted.
Trump, in turn, has called her a “bombastic loser” and a “RINO.”
“Frankly, almost everyone despises her, and who needs that in Congress or the Republican Party?” Trump said in a statement as he endorsed his 2022 opponent Katie Arrington.
DailyMail.com reported that she was blacklisted from his events in 2016 after working for his campaign.
But Mace now says Trump “respects” her for exactly the reason they were antagonists in the past: that she doesn’t simply agree with his party.
“Sometimes I get in trouble when I go against the grain, but my voters in my district, in my state, don’t want me to follow the party line. And I think he respects that.”
“When you go against the system like I have, I stick out like a sore thumb.”