CHARLESTON — U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, the outspoken South Carolina Republican whose political rise has defied easy categorization and made her one of the GOP’s most unpredictable figures, is entering the state’s 2026 governor’s race.
About an hour after sunrise on Aug. 4, Mace declared her candidacy at The Citadel, the storied military college where she made history in 1999 as the first woman to graduate from its Corps of Cadets.
The setting was a deliberate choice, an evocative return to where her rise to prominence began, and a site that still anchors both her self-image and her political persona. Mace, 47, has long drawn on her time at the military college to frame herself as a fighter, a rule-breaker, a trailblazer and someone who always resisted the roles others tried to assign her.
Her gubernatorial bid, she said, will be no different.
“I didn’t come to join the club. They don’t want me, and I don’t want them. I came to hold the line. They said stay quiet. I spoke up. They said sit down. I stood up. They said play nice. I fought back,” Mace said in the courtyard at Capers Hall. “South Carolina is tired of politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face, then vanish when it’s time to lead. I’m not one of them.”
A spokesman for The Citadel said the on-campus site was rented by the Mace campaign “just as other venues have been rented in the past.” The cost was not immediately disclosed by the school.
Capers Hall Auditorium was recently used for a June event with U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. Other campaigns — including presidential bids by Pete Buttigieg in 2020 and Carly Fiorina in 2015 — have likewise rented space on campus.
Nancy Mace, U.S. Representative from South Carolina, has entered the race to be the state’s next governor.
Mace, now in her third term in Congress, has openly hinted at her interest in the governor’s mansion this year.
She began signaling her potential run in January. In the months that followed, she kept hinting at the bid to come — sometimes seriously, sometimes with a wink — telling reporters she might be “forced” into it, showing up at the S.C. Statehouse in May and answering many questions with the all-but-certain hedge: “If I were governor.”
Her decision to run for governor will also create a wide-open race for the state’s 1st Congressional District.
When her formal kickoff finally arrived at her alma mater, it felt less like the “major announcement” promised by her campaign and more like a foregone conclusion. In mid-March, a cherry red “Nancy Mace for Governor” logo briefly appeared on her congressional campaign website. And an email blast last week for her upcoming town hall tour revealed the host as “Nancy Mace for Governor.”
In her speech, Mace cast herself as a defender of women and children, called for the elimination of the state income tax and advocated for an overhaul of the state’s judicial system. She also advocated for expanded school choice.
Mace also called for penalizing businesses that she said hire undocumented workers instead of “hardworking South Carolinians.” And she described her decision to enter the race as part of a bigger purpose.
“This isn’t just a campaign, it’s a calling. A call for common sense. A call for courage. And a call to put South Carolina first,” Mace said.
Mace now officially joins a crowded field of contenders in the battle to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican who cannot run again because he is term-limited by state law.
The other announced candidates for next June’s GOP primary include state Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg also is seeking the seat.
Nancy Mace (left) enjoys a moment with fellow cadet Petra Lovetinska after becoming the first female graduate of The Citadel in 1999. Lovetinska graduated from the military school in 2000.
Mace’s entry into the race sets up a key test in the state’s GOP primary: How will Republican voters respond to a candidate whose relationship with President Donald Trump has swung from ally to adversary and back again?
All who have entered the race have emphasized their ties to Trump, who has remained popular in South Carolina since his decisive 2016 primary win here helped cement his grip on the GOP.
After her announcement, Mace confirmed she had spoken to Trump over the weekend about her plans to run for governor, later stressing, “It’s going to be very important that we have a governor who has a great relationship with the president like I do.”
For now, Trump has stayed neutral in the still-unfolding race.
Once viewed as a relatively moderate voice within the Republican Party, Mace has in recent years repositioned herself to align more closely with the MAGA wing — embracing a brand of politics that often clashes with her earlier stances. She has become a prominent voice in the right’s push against transgender rights, despite saying as recently as last year “I’m pro-transgender rights.”
But nothing illustrates her shift to the right more clearly than her evolving relationship with Trump.
Before arriving in Washington, Mace worked on his 2016 presidential campaign and became the state’s first lawmaker with real ties to Trump when she was elected to the S.C. House in 2018.
Since entering Congress, her relationship with the president has been a study in political recalibration.
Mace once said Trump should never be allowed to run for office or hold office again — a position she took in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol when she emerged as one of his most outspoken Republican critics.
Trump, in turn, made her a top target, endorsing her 2022 primary challenger and calling Mace “nasty, disloyal, and bad for the Republican Party.” The next day, Mace filmed a public show of support outside Trump Tower.
Despite it all, Mace survived her GOP primary challenge.
Trump later endorsed her reelection bid and by 2024, Mace had endorsed him over fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley — who had supported Mace when Trump would not — fully aligning herself with the MAGA crowd she once tried to keep at arm’s length.
Mace now is in her fifth year in Congress representing much of the Lowcountry. Since landing there in 2021, she has built a reputation as a political wild card, explaining shifts on issues as part of her independent streak.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace announces her candidacy for South Carolina governor, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, at The Citadel, the military college where she became the first woman to graduate from its Corps of Cadets.
She has often operated as her own political faction, calling herself “a caucus of one.” She has also generated a steady stream of headlines.
She was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican who had previously campaigned and fundraised on Mace’s behalf. She became a breakout star for her line of questioning at a congressional hearing about UFOs and aliens, and went viral for swearing at one of her constituents in a beauty store after he asked her when she would hold a town hall.
In February, she delivered an unprecedented floor speech in which she accused four men of being “sexual predators.” One of the men has since sued her for defamation in federal court, and Mace has sued another of the men for defaming her.
Her evolution has made her a polarizing figure — both embraced and reviled by different factions within the party. But people know her name. Statewide polling has shown voters are much more familiar with Mace than the other Republican candidates running for governor.
She will begin road-testing her message this week with an event series she is calling “the mother of all town halls.” Her first stop will be at Veterans Cafe & Grill in Myrtle Beach on Aug. 6. She will then travel to the Upstate, hosting another in Greenville on Aug. 9.