Nancy Mace emerged victorious from a controversial primary challenge backed by former President Kevin McCarthy.
The AP called the race at 8:40 pm in favor of Mace over Catherine Templeton, a state official who claimed to be more conservative than Mace. Mace won the primary with 57.6% of the vote at the time the race was called.
Mace won her last election 56-42 over Democrat Annie Andrews and is a heavy favorite to win in November.
The congresswoman drew McCarthy’s ire when she voted with seven other Republicans and all Democrats to oust him from the presidency.
McCarthy’s political action committee, Majority Committee PAC, made a $10,000 donation to Templeton in April and the American Prosperity Alliance, where McCarthy ally Brian Walsh serves as a senior adviser, has spent more than $2 million. dollars to defeat Mace.
The race has become one of the most expensive House races in South Carolina history: Outside groups have spent nearly $5 million either attacking Mace or boosting Templeton.
Mace is McCarthy’s first enemy to assume a credible primary threat.
Nancy Mace faces a primary challenger with key behind-the-scenes backing from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Catherine Templeton, on Tuesday.
The race has become one of the most expensive House races in South Carolina history: Outside groups have spent nearly $5 million either attacking Mace or boosting Templeton, up.
Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the Freedom Caucus who voted to impeach the president, will face Trump-backed John McGuire next week.
The 46-year-old mother of two has been accused by her critics of “changing her mind for fame”, especially in her relationship with former President Donald Trump.
“We take it lightly, it’s kind of fun.” I’ve joked that I’m the prodigal daughter to him,” Mace told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview last month.
Trump had endorsed Mace, who was locked in a big-money primary, weeks after she snubbed her former friend Nikki Haley to endorse him.
Trump once called her “crazy” and a “terrible person” and in 2022 endorsed her main rival. In 2016, she was blacklisted from his campaign events.
“We project that (McCarthy) will spend between $4 million and $5 million in the primary to try to buy this seat,” Mace said of the race.
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.
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.
In February, McCarthy told reporters that he hopes Mace “gets help to get his life back on track.”
“She has a lot of challenges,” he said.
Mace’s political views range from moderate to deeply conservative. He openly opposes abortion bans, but voted against McCarthy over the debt ceiling deal, which he did not believe was conservative enough.
He voted against a foreign aid package for Ukraine, but also voted against a bill that would ban TikTok if it doesn’t divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance.
Mace has made a name for herself in women’s issues.
Mace incurred McCarthy’s ire when he voted with seven other Republicans and all Democrats to oust him from the presidency.
“Anyway, we have a very slim majority and (McCarthy) did a terrible 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.”