Nancy Mace leads GOP primary challengers by 25% in race for her seat – Washington Examiner

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has ruffled feathers during her tenure in the House of Representatives, but it does not appear to be jeopardizing her reelection chances in the GOP primary.

Mace has garnered a couple of primary challengers, but she is significantly ahead of both of them, according to a poll from the Hill and Emerson College released on Thursday. Among likely GOP primary voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Mace has 47%, Catherine Templeton has 22%, Bill Young has 7%, and 24% remain undecided.

Mace was one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speakership in October, and has labeled Templeton as a “puppet in Kevin McCarthy’s bitter revenge operation.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) arrives as House Republicans hold a closed-door forum to hear from the contenders for speaker of the House, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. House business and most congressional action has come to a standstill after Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted as speaker by conservatives in his own party. Mace was one who voted against McCarthy. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The congresswoman has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, but a plurality of voters, 42.6%, said the endorsement has had no impact on their decision. The survey also showed that 37.1% said that the endorsement made them more likely to support Mace, and 20.4% said it made them less likely to support Mace.

“With just under three weeks until the South Carolina primary elections, Mace holds a significant lead over her primary challengers Templeton and Young,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement on Thursday. “Mace’s support is strongest among voters over 70, 53% of whom support the Representative, voters without a college degree, at 51%, and male voters, at 49%.”

The Republican primary in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District is scheduled for June 11.

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Mace also scored a victory on Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld the state’s congressional map, which included a favorable partisan lean that was drawn for her current district during the redistricting process based on the 2020 census.

The race for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District is rated as “likely Republican” by the Cook Political Report, with a partisan voting index of Republican +7.