South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace will win the Republican primary for the state’s 1st Congressional District, CNN projects, staving off two challengers and a push by allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whom she voted to oust.
By taking a majority of the vote Tuesday, Mace is projected to avoid a June 25 primary runoff in her quest for a third term representing the coastal Charleston-area seat.
Tuesday’s outcome comes as a much-needed win for Mace, who has become an increasingly polarizing figure within her party. She has faced waves of criticism over the past several months, including accusations that she created a toxic workplace to anger over votes by her and seven other Republicans to boot McCarthy from the speakership in October.
Days after the move, Mace wore a white T-shirt with a red “A” on the front, a reference to the novel “The Scarlet Letter” and what she described as a demonization of her vote.
McCarthy sought his revenge at the ballot box, with his allies spending millions attacking Mace during the primary. The congresswoman and groups backing her painted chief opponent Catherine Templeton – a former South Carolina Cabinet official under Republican Gov. Nikki Haley – as a McCarthy puppet.
Mace has faced criticism for her evolving relationship with former President Donald Trump. After the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, Mace told CNN that Trump’s “entire legacy was wiped out” that day. In the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, Trump backed her primary opponent Katie Arrington. Among Mace’s chief backers in that primary was Haley, who campaigned with Mace and appeared in a TV ad on her behalf. Mace went on to defeat Arrington by 8 points.
Two years later, Mace endorsed Trump over Haley ahead of South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary. The former president endorsed Mace in March, calling her a “strong conservative voice.”
Mace was first elected in 2020, when she narrowly unseated Democratic incumbent Joe Cunningham. She easily won reelection two years after the district was redrawn to become more favorable to the GOP.
A three-judge panel concluded last year that the district’s new lines amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. But the US Supreme Court upheld the new map last month, rejecting the argument that state lawmakers had impermissibly used race as a proxy to bolster the GOP’s chances.
