Notorious transphobe Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) lost in her state’s Republican gubernatorial primary earlier this week, coming in 5th place as Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson advanced to a runoff. And now, Republicans who worked closely with her are speaking out about why she is unfit to lead.
Mace’s behavior became increasingly erratic over the past year and a half, seemingly fueled by the election of Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) as the first out trans person in Congress. Mace made lashing out at McBride (and the trans community at large) her entire persona, which sparked a series of incidents in which Mace claimed to be a victim of progressive backlash.
Related
Mace also exhibited erratic behavior in committee hearings and during public interactions with constituents. Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told the Washington Post he watched as her “political and personal life unraveled” over the past few years. “The only thing I hope is she gets the help she needs.”
“I helped her win. But I just watched her change along the way,” McCarthy continued. “Some people warned when she was an early candidate, ‘Watch out, she’s not all there.’ I didn’t.”
Your LGBTQ+ guide to Elections
Stay ahead of the election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter.
When McBride became the first out trans person elected to Congress, Mace got her banned from women’s restrooms. She centered her gubernatorial campaign around dismantling trans rights and has relentlessly bullied McBride since the two became colleagues in the House.
The self-described “proud transphobe” has lobbed transphobic slurs at a student, shouted these slurs during a speech and a House committee meeting, publicly bullied a trans influencer, was booed when discussing a trans activist’s genitals at a public talk, targeted two universities in her state for offering more than two gender options on certain student forms, referred to McBride as “it” and “a man” in a TV news appearance, and called trans people “mentally ill” (even though trans identity isn’t considered a mental illness by any major medical or psychological association).
Mace’s former communications director, Will Hampson, called Mace “her own best weapon and own worst enemy.”
“I don’t think Nancy Mace has ever seen a bridge in her life that she hasn’t burned down,” he said.
Justin Evans, a veteran GOP operative in South Carolina, said Mace simply didn’t have the ethics to succeed in the end. “I don’t know of anybody who puts their finger in the wind and tries to see which way it’s blowing more than Nancy Mace,” Evans said. “She was a good-looking, talented communicator, had the social media following, had all the ingredients that a successful candidate should have. It’s just her moral compass was completely missing.”
Dorchester County Republican Party Chair C.J. Westfall, who worked on Mace’s 2022 reelection campaign, said Republicans seemed to like her at first because she was an “independent voice.” But as time went on, Westfall said it was clear she was a “crybully” obsessed with “play[ing] the victim.”
Last December, for example, Mace claimed foster youth advocate James McIntyre of Illinois injured her arm at an event for the Foster Youth Caucus, of which Mace is a co-chair.
“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man,” Mace wrote on X, inexplicably starring out the word trans. “One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine. The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO. #HoldTheLine.”
The charges allege that McIntyre “took her hand with both of his hands and shook her arm up and down in an exaggerated, aggressive hand-shaking motion.”
Three eyewitnesses, however, accused Mace of manufacturing the assault, saying Mace and McIntyre, who pleaded not guilty, shared nothing more than a standard handshake while he asked the Congresswoman to protect trans rights. In April, federal prosecutors dropped the charges against McIntyre.
Also in April, Mace posted a video of herself saying, “F**k you” to one of her constituents while shopping at an Ulta makeup store after he asked her if she was holding any town halls this year. She assumed that the man was gay and part of the “left,” even though he neither mentioned his sexuality nor political affiliation during their interaction.
Despite the fact that he merely asked her a question, she posted that an “unhinged lunatic… got in my face today.”
Some unhinged lunatic, a man, wearing daisy dukes, at a makeup store, got in my face today. Dems are nuts. So I went off – and I won’t be backing down.
I hold the line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Try me. pic.twitter.com/Uv181Ovys0
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) April 19, 2025
In December, she blamed transgender people for her public meltdown that occurred at the Charleston International Airport on October 30. A police report said Mace turned a minor security miscommunication into a swear-filled “spectacle” that left airport employees visibly upset. Mace accused the police of lying about the incident.
When asked what happened by Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo, Mace replied, “We have to take our security very seriously. If you’re conservative, if you’re well known, if you have fought the transgender community like I have, exponentially — in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s public assassination — the death threats, the amount of political violence, the celebration of the killing of conservatives, is deeply disturbing.”
A police report of the incident said that Mace called police “f**king idiots” and “f**king incompetent”; proclaimed that she is a “f**king representative”; and told a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supervisor, ‘I’m sick of your s**t…. You guys are always f**king late and this is f**king ridiculous.”
Mace accused the TSA and Charleston International Airport security (CHS) workers of conspiring against her in “a disturbing abuse of power and a clear case of political retaliation.”
She claimed that her selection for additional airport security screening was “the stuff of the DEEP STATE and BIG BROTHER,” and claimed that her lawsuit against the airport “may bring South Carolina’s Attorney General down in flames with it, and several others.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.