By MIKE McCOMBS
S.C. State representative Nancy Mace announced on Wednesday, June 26 that she is running for the 1st Congressional District seat currently held by Democrat Joe Cunningham.
Mace joins Mt. Pleasant’s Kathy Landing in seeking the Republican nomination in the 2020 primary.
“I believe Republicans will win back the First Congressional District with the right type of candidate; someone who is supportive of the President especially on infrastructure and immigration; someone who has a solid record of true fiscally conservative values; but also a conservationist who believes in preserving the beauty and quality of life in the Lowcountry,” Mace said in a release.
Mace currently represents the 99th district – Hanahan, northeast Mt. Pleasant and Daniel Island – in the S.C. Statehouse. She won the seat in a runoff over Mark Smith in a special election to replace the indicted Jimmy Merrill in 2017. She was re-elected last year, easily holding off Democratic challenger Jen Gibson.
Prior to her statehouse tenure, Mace ran for Lindsay Graham’s Senate seat in 2014, finishing fifth in the Republican primary with 6.19 percent of the vote. She did land a key endorsement, however, from the National Association for Gun Rights.
Mace was a Coalitions Director and Field Director for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. during the 2016 presidential primaries. She worked in seven different states and was involved in the S.C. Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District, where Trump-supported Katie Arrington defeated incumbent Mark Sanford.
“I look forward to meeting and speaking with voters in SC-1 to hear about their thoughts and their ideas,” Mace said in a release. “I want to learn what is most important to them, their families and their businesses, because in the end, we are all in this together.”
In the announcement that she’s running for the 1st Congressional District seat, Mace cites infrastructure, Constitutional rights, the border wall and increased border security as priorities.
“We simply cannot allow radical politicians in Washington to turn America into a socialist country,” Mace said. “My legislative record shows I will stand up for the Lowcountry. I will stand up for my beliefs and my constituents even when it means bucking the party line.”
Mace, a Goose Creek native and Stratford High School graduate, graduated magna cum laude from The Citadel, where she was the school’s first female graduate from its Corps of Cadets in 1999. She later earned a masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia.
In 2001, she authored “In The Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel.”
Her business experience includes corporate technology consulting and commercial real estate. She has two children.
