Nancy Ruth Mace born December 4, 1977 is an American politician who has been the U.S. representative for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district since 2021. Her district includes much of the state’s share of the East Coast, from Charleston to Hilton Head Island. In 1999, Mace became the first woman to graduate from the Corps of Cadets program at The Citadel. From 2018 to 2020, she represented the 99th district in the South Carolina House of Representatives, covering Hanahan, northeast Mount Pleasant, and Daniel Island. In 2020, Mace was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Republican woman elected to Congress from South Carolina.
Nancy Mace Facts
- Born: Nancy Ruth Mace December 4, 1977 (age 46)Fort Bragg,: North Carolina,
- Political: Party Republican
- Spouse(s) : Chris Niemiec
- Children: 2
- Education : The Citadel (BS)
Nancy Mace Early life, education, and career
Mace was born at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to United States Army officer James Emory Mace and schoolteacher Anne Mace. In 1999, Mace became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets programreceiving a degree in business administration.[6] Mace wrote In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel (Simon & Schuster, 2001) about the experience.
Mace went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia
In 2008, Mace started a public relations and consulting firm called The Mace Group.In 2012, Mace partnered with FITSNews, a news website that covers South Carolina politics and current events, to build their website.[10]
Nancy Mace Early political career
In 2012, Mace volunteered for the campaign of presidential candidate Ron Paul.[11][12][13]
In August 2013, Mace announced her candidacy in the 2014 election for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in South Carolina. She received 19,560 votes (6.2% of the vote) in the primary election on June 10, 2014, behind Lindsey Graham (56.4%), Lee Bright (15.4%), Richard Cash (8.3%), and Det Bowers (7.3%).
Mace supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 as a coalitions director and field director for the campaign.
Nancy Mace South Carolina House of Representatives
Mace On September 18, 2017, Mace filed as a Republican to run in a special election for the South Carolina State House District 99 seat being vacated by Jimmy Merrill, who resigned earlier that month after an indictment and plea deal for several ethics violations. She received 49.5% of the vote in the November 14 Republican primary, 13 votes short of winning the nomination outright. She defeated the second-place finisher, Mount Pleasant town councilman Mark Smith, in the November 28 runoff, 63–37%.
Mace defeated Democrat Cindy Boatwright in the January 16, 2018, general election, 2,066 votes to 1,587 (57–43%).[21] She took office on January 23, 2018.
Nancy Mace U.S. House of Representatives
Mace In June 2019, Mace announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district, centered in Charleston, and at the time represented by Democrat Joe Cunningham. Cunningham won the seat in 2018 in a surprise victory, winning a district Trump had carried by 13 percentage points two years earlier. Mace faced Mount Pleasant City Councilwoman Kathy Landing and Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox in the June 9 Republican primary. During her primary campaign, she ran an advertisement stating she would “help President Trump take care of our veterans”, and in which Vice President Mike Pence called her “an extraordinary American with an extraordinary lifetime of accomplishments—past, present and future.” She won the primary with 57.5% of the vote.
Mace focused her campaign on banning offshore drilling off South Carolina’s coast and restoring South Carolina’s low country’s economy.
Mace In the November general election, Mace defeated Cunningham. She assumed office on January 3, 2021.
Nancy Mace Political positions
n April 2021, Mace voiced her opposition to a Democratic proposal to grant the District of Columbia statehood. She argued that D.C. was too small to qualify as a state, saying, “D.C. wouldn’t even qualify as a singular congressional district.” She made this statement alongside Liz Cheney who represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district, which has a smaller population than D.C.
LGBT rights
In 2021, The Washington Examiner wrote that Mace “is a supporter of both religious liberty and gay marriage.” Later that year, she told The Washington Examiner, “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality. No one should be discriminated against.” She opposed the Equality Act, instead co-sponsoring a Republican alternative called the Fairness for All Act.
Mace was one of 31 Republicans to vote for the LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act. Mace was the lone Republican to sponsor H.R.5776 – Serving Our LGBTQ Veterans Act, legislation establishing a Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Among other functions, the center must serve as the department’s principal adviser on adoption and implementation of policies and programs affecting veterans who are LGBTQ.
Mace In July 2022, Mace was among 47 Republican representatives who voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects existing same-sex and interracial marriages under federal law.[62] She later said, “If gay couples want to be as happily or miserably married as straight couples, more power to them. Trust me, I’ve tried it more than once.”
Abortion and contraception
On January 26, 2023, Mace introduced the Standing with Moms Act, which would create a website, life.gov, that would link women to crisis pregnancy centers.
Mace In 2021, Mace was one of 26 Republicans to vote for the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act In 2022 she voted for H.R. 8373 (“The Right to Contraception Act”), a bill designed “to protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception”.
Mace has called on legislators to work on a compromise involving “gestational limits” on abortions, citing the example of European nations, but also exceptions for rape or incest, saying: “In most countries in Europe you’re looking at 12 to 15 weeks there. And there are other, you know, exceptions that we should be looking at. We should be ensuring that life of the mother in every instance is protected … which is one of the reasons I was one of eight Republicans just a few weeks ago to vote to ensure that women have access to contraceptives. There are some basic things we could be doing that all of us agree on, the vast majority of people agree on, and aren’t fringy on either side of the aisle. But that’s not what we’re doing right now.”
Mace In 2021, Mace was among a handful of Republican representatives who did not sign onto an amicus brief to overturn Roe v. Wade.[69] She criticized states enacting abortion bans without exceptions in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. In an interview on Face the Nation, she said she disagreed with the recently passed abortion ban in Florida, which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis: “Signing a six-week ban that puts women who are victims of rape and girls who are victims of incest and in a hard spot isn’t the way to change hearts and minds. It’s not
compassionate. The requirements DeSantis has for rape victims are too much, not something that I support. It’s a non-starter. I am a victim of rape. I was raped by a classmate at the age of 16. I am very wary, and the devil is always in the details, but we’ve got to show more care and concern and compassion for women who’ve been raped. I don’t like that this bill was signed in the dead of night”.
Marijuana legalization
Mace speaking in support of the States Reform Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level in 2021
In 2021, Mace introduced the States Reform Act to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and regulate it similarly to alcohol. She said: “This bill supports veterans, law enforcement, farmers, businesses, those with serious illnesses, and it is good for criminal justice reform. … The States Reform Act takes special care to keep Americans and their children safe while ending federal interference with state cannabis laws.