Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) won her South Carolina primary after beating two challengers, ushering her toward a likely general election victory this November thanks to redistricting in the state.
The Associated Press called the race in Mace’s favor at 8:40 p.m. after polls had been closed for nearly two hours. Mace won the primary with 57.6% of the vote at the time the race was called.
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Mace defeated her top opponent, Catherine Templeton, the former director of South Carolina’s Department of Health and former U.S. Brick president, and Marine veteran and financial planner Bill Young. Templeton received 28.8% and Young received 13.5% when the race was called.
The South Carolina congresswoman holds an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, a surprise considering the former president campaigned against her in the 2022 midterm elections.
She won the primary without the support of longtime Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who endorsed Templeton, and after she found herself at the center of party infighting for her role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Her win also comes despite reports of a revolving door of staff turnover at her offices and claims from former employees of a “toxic” work environment.
Mace’s primary race was the first stop in McCarthy’s “revenge” tour, with his allies funneling in large amounts of money through outside groups and PACs into races like Mace’s and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good’s (R-VA) primary next week. Four of the eight Republicans who joined Mace and Good in voting out McCarthy — Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Eli Crane (R-AZ) — face primaries later this year.
While McCarthy did not explicitly endorse Templeton, he has gotten involved with raising money for her campaign to boost her candidacy. McCarthy criticized Mace heading into the primary election, attacking the congresswoman over her voting record and the recent turnover in her office.
“I just hope she gets the help to straighten out her life. I mean, she’s got a lot of challenges,” McCarthy told reporters in February. “No one will stay working for her. You can’t have somebody who just flips and flops based upon what TV station she gets put on. You want someone who’s willing to work, and so I hope she gets that kind of help.”