You know, she is kind of a blueprint for how power can corrupt people, and how they will do, and say, about anything to keep it. Finding someone who stands on principle these days is rare indeed, and some are far worse than Mace is. She won't be Governor of South Carolina.
Mace had real political talent and promise, but her downfall and isolation followed years of brazen political opportunism, a hunger for media attention at any cost, rejecting advisers’ counsel and turning on many allies, more than a dozen former aides, colleagues and supporters in both South Carolina and Washington said in interviews.
She finished fifth in the contest, according to unofficial returns, solidly losing even her own home county and district.
Mace arrived in Congress after flipping a Charleston-area district in 2020 and built a reputation as a moderate who appealed to swing voters. She voted to codify same-sex marriage rights, called herself “pro transgender rights” and urged her party to “meet in the middle” with Democrats on abortion. By last year, Mace had begun repeatedly mocking transgender people as “trannies” and disparaged gay relationships on social media. In recent days, Mace suggested a Republican opponent in the governor’s race came from “a slum in India.”
Her relationship with President Donald Trump was similarly mercurial. She distanced herself from him soon after taking office, survived his attempt to oust her in 2022, rebranded herself as a MAGA warrior, defied Trump on the Epstein files and sought his endorsement in the governor’s race, only to watch him back a rival. No high-profile Republican endorsed her campaign.
The spectacle of Mace’s transformation often unfolded on the cameras she gravitated toward in television interviews, selfie videos posted on social media and dramatic exchanges in committee hearings. Her public appearances grew increasingly combative and bizarre.
“The only thing I hope is she gets the help she needs,” former Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told The Washington Post, saying he watched as her “political and personal life unraveled” in recent years.
Mace, whom McCarthy had helped to unseat Democrat Joe Cunningham in 2020, cast an unexpected vote for his ouster as speaker in 2023, joining right-wing hard-liners and Democrats as she abruptly turned on him. She later walked around the Capitol wearing a large scarlet “A” on her shirt, because she said she had been “demonized” for that vote.
WaPo
Mace had real political talent and promise, but her downfall and isolation followed years of brazen political opportunism, a hunger for media attention at any cost, rejecting advisers’ counsel and turning on many allies, more than a dozen former aides, colleagues and supporters in both South Carolina and Washington said in interviews.
She finished fifth in the contest, according to unofficial returns, solidly losing even her own home county and district.
Mace arrived in Congress after flipping a Charleston-area district in 2020 and built a reputation as a moderate who appealed to swing voters. She voted to codify same-sex marriage rights, called herself “pro transgender rights” and urged her party to “meet in the middle” with Democrats on abortion. By last year, Mace had begun repeatedly mocking transgender people as “trannies” and disparaged gay relationships on social media. In recent days, Mace suggested a Republican opponent in the governor’s race came from “a slum in India.”
Her relationship with President Donald Trump was similarly mercurial. She distanced herself from him soon after taking office, survived his attempt to oust her in 2022, rebranded herself as a MAGA warrior, defied Trump on the Epstein files and sought his endorsement in the governor’s race, only to watch him back a rival. No high-profile Republican endorsed her campaign.
The spectacle of Mace’s transformation often unfolded on the cameras she gravitated toward in television interviews, selfie videos posted on social media and dramatic exchanges in committee hearings. Her public appearances grew increasingly combative and bizarre.
“The only thing I hope is she gets the help she needs,” former Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told The Washington Post, saying he watched as her “political and personal life unraveled” in recent years.
Mace, whom McCarthy had helped to unseat Democrat Joe Cunningham in 2020, cast an unexpected vote for his ouster as speaker in 2023, joining right-wing hard-liners and Democrats as she abruptly turned on him. She later walked around the Capitol wearing a large scarlet “A” on her shirt, because she said she had been “demonized” for that vote.
WaPo
