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by WILL FOLKS
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As a light rain fell across the “hallowed ground” where she first made history more than a quarter century ago, South Carolina first district congresswoman Nancy Mace aimed to make history once more – launching her 2026 campaign for the governorship of the Palmetto State early Monday morning (August 4, 2025).
“This morning, I’m making it official,” Mace said shortly after 7:30 a.m. EDT, ending months of speculation about her designs on higher office.
Mace, 47, of Daniel Island, S.C. formalized her candidacy at The Citadel, where she became the first woman to graduate from the corps of cadets in 1999. Mace recalled her arrival at the Citadel, and specifically being accompanied by her father – James Emory Mace, a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army.
Mace said she was “shaking, nervous” upon her arrival at the all-male institution…
“I asked my father to help me drop my books off at my dorm, at the barracks… and he said ‘no,'” Mace recalled. “I had to do it on my own. I remember I asked for a hug – my dad shook my hand. And he said ‘don’t call home if you want to quit – just put on your shoes and start walking.'”
“I didn’t quit,” Mace continued, “I had something to prove.”
She still does…
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Mace channeled a similar “me versus the world” energy throughout her announcement speech, which was twice briefly interrupted by screaming protesters.
“They said play nice – I fought back,” Mace said, referring to her ongoing, high-profile legal battle against multiple alleged abusers – including her former fiancé, Patrick Bryant.
Addressing the insiders at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, S.C., Mace was every bit as blunt.
“They don’t want me and I don’t want them,” she said, vowing to “drag the truth into sunlight and flip the tables if that’s what’s necessary.”
“I don’t owe those in the backroom a single thing,” she added.
Mace’s campaign launch drew a flood of local, regional, national and international media to her former campus – including reporters from Politico and The (U.K.) Daily Mail.
Unlike typical political announcements, Mace punctuated her address with a lengthy, substantive policy discussion – one which included the rollout of a comprehensive, multi-pronged agenda that rivaled the detailed, wonkish pronouncements of former governor Mark Sanford.
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Mace vowed to eliminate the Palmetto State’s oppressively high individual income tax over the coming five years – saying she hoped to accelerate its phaseout via the reduction or suspension of pork barrel earmarks. She also challenged each agency to trim between three and four percent from its annual budget – and vowed a top-to-bottom review of the hundreds of state boards and commissions currently receiving funding from the state.
“This isn’t about austerity, this is about building a prosperous future for South Carolina,” she said. “This is not just about individuals taxpayers, it’s about the LLCs and small business that are running our state.”
Mace’s policy rollout also addressed “sanctuary sheriffs” who refuse to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Mace is widely credited with engineering the electoral defeat of one of those sheriffs, former Charleston County sheriff Kristin Graziano.
On the public safety front, Mace took direct aim at her top rival in the race for governor, S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – reiterating previous criticisms of his alleged leniency in dealing with sex offenders.
“The days of pedophiles serving one day in jail are over,” Mace said, referencing a Charleston county case in which Wilson’s office negotiated a questionable deal with an offender named Donald Gresh.
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I’m running to be the Governor of South Carolina!
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) August 4, 2025
God’s not done with South Carolina and neither am I. You and me. Our mission begins now.
South Carolina First. Nancy Mace for Governor.https://t.co/tkO1oN5G0W pic.twitter.com/odvxAKfz5b
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Wilson’s campaign fired back at Mace, accusing her of voting to elect the liberal judge who turned a similar suspect loose after just twenty-four hours behind bars.
According to Wilson, former S.C. circuit court judge Bentley Price – who was repeatedly assailed by our media outlet as the “poster judge” for excessive leniency to violent, dangerous offenders – gave another offender a one-day sentence after he had been facing significant time behind bars for his crimes.
“When a known predator served only a day, it was judge Bentley Price, whom Mace voted to elect, who made that dangerous ruling,” a statement from the Wilson campaign noted. “Her attacks on Wilson now are nothing more than a smokescreen to hide her own responsibility and close friendship with a judge later found unqualified to serve for years of misconduct and bad decisions from the bench.
“Nancy Mace can’t be trusted and is trying to distract from her liberal voting record and support for soft-on-crime judges,” Wilson’s deputy campaign manager Claire Brady said.
Early polling has shown Mace and Wilson as the two frontrunners in this contest, which also includes S.C. lieutenant governor Pamela Evette, U.S. fifth district congressman Ralph Norman and Upstate S.C. senator Josh Kimbrell. With broad swaths of the GOP electorate currently undecided, most observers believe the race is wide open.
GOP voters head to the polls on June 9, 2026. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in that election, the top two finishers would face off in a runoff election two weeks later.
Given the breadth of Mace’s policy rollout, stay tuned to FITSNews for additional coverage on her candidacy this week as we review the finer points of her comprehensive agenda…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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11 comments
“…God’s not done with South Carolina…” This could either be a blessing or a curse.
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” Thomas Jefferson
So we learned that Nancy has daddy issues and is not adverse to a Real Housewives fit of table flipping.
“People are fed up”
Yes, people are fed up with attention whores who treat politics like a reality show, clamoring constantly for camera time.
Let Mace and Wilson destroy each other with their vitriol. Pam will rise above the fray and win the race
“ The people are fed up…?! In case you need a little history lesson, Congresswoman, your party, the Republican Party, has been in control of the SC House of Representatives since 1994, the SC Senate since 2000, and has held the Governor’s office continuously since 2003. Today, all the state constitutional offices are held by Republicans, as well as both US Senate seats and six of seven Congressional seats. Any thing that you might deem that causes the people to be “fed up”, would therefore seem of your and your fellow Republicans own making.
Very fair comment. But I would add that about 30-40% of state level republican elected officials are just former democrats who were savvy enough to read the political tea leaves in the 1990s and early 2000s and simply switched the letter behind their name to get elected or stay in office. SCGOP has a huge RINO and stealth democrat problem. But above all this, the governor’s position in this state, in terms of getting laws changed and major budget initiatives passed, is extremely weak – regardless of who holds the office.
You are correct in that many Democrats switched parties for political convenience. But practically all of those guys have retired or died or been defeated. Hugh Letterman or Larry Martinin the Senate being an example. . The great, great majority of Republicans in both houses today have always been Republican, and have espoused Republican conservative positions from the get-go. To blame “RINOS or stealth Democrats” for the legislature’s progress or lack of, is to insult the judgment of the Republican primary voter and is simply seeking a scapegoat. They elect them. As for a weak governor, you are correct. But doesn’t this undermine Mace’s argument that she can really make a difference? I would be interested to know exactly how she plans to make a difference. A Governor can’t be effective by attacking the legislature. Ask Mark Sanford.
Will writes this like he’s hoping to get a job out of it.
I’m confused about her comments about her father and the Citadel, wasn’t he commandant of cadets at the Citadel while she attended?
Mace is batshit crazy.
She perfectly fits the profile of Histrionic Personality Disorder in the DSM. This is a woman with deep-seated psychological problems.