Rep. Nancy Mace initially criticized Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 ransacking of the U.S. Capitol but opposed impeachment and spent the next year avoiding criticism of the former president.
No matter.
Trump on Wednesday endorsed Mace’s opponent, Katie Arrington, 51, in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District Republican primary, adding the fiery, first-term representative to the growing list of so-called apostates he wants excommunicated from the party in 2022. Mace’s House voting record is solidly conservative, and she has been a party loyalist on nearly every issue.
The congresswoman’s only sin? Past criticism of a former president whose campaign she worked for in 2016 and backed again in 2020.
“Nancy Mace is essentially conservative Barbie,” said a Republican operative with South Carolina ties who backs her reelection.
Trump endorsed Arrington once before in 2018 when she ousted incumbent Mark Sanford in the 1st District Republican primary before losing to Democratic Joe Cunningham in the general election. The former president’s decision to back her again, this time against Mace, 44, touched off a war of words between the two women, who sparred on social media over who is better positioned to defend a coastal, “Lowcountry” district that is affluent and South Carolina’s most diverse.
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“I won this seat back for Republicans in 2020,” Mace said in a homemade video she filmed in front of Trump Tower in New York City and posted on Twitter, during which she ticked off a list of her Trump bona fides. “If you want to lose this seat once again in a midterm election cycle to Democrats, then my opponent is more than qualified to do just that.”
Arrington struck back, also on Twitter.
“Nancy — did you get lost on your way to the Fox News Studio? Or are you in NYC to fundraise with the progressives? What does NYC have to do with the Lowcountry?” (The Mace campaign said the congresswoman coincidentally happened to be in Manhattan and did not travel there to film the video.)
Meanwhile, the Mace-Arrington showdown is poised to become a proxy battle with 2024 overtones pitting Trump against his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. In so doing, it will attract attention far beyond the confines of the Charleston media market. It is hardly what the former South Carolina governor was seeking.
Haley endorsed Mace’s first House bid, and the congresswoman gave her no reason to withhold support for her reelection. Yes, Mace opposed objections to President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6, 2021. But Haley, through her Stand For America PAC, has endorsed several Republicans running in 2022, including strong Trump supporters who voted against the congressional certification of Biden’s win. And Haley’s endorsement of Mace was announced before Arrington even announced her candidacy.
“Nancy is the conservative voice the Lowcountry needs in Washington,” Haley said in a statement. “She’s a fighter who stands up to Biden’s reckless spending, punches back against lawless lockdowns and mandates, and is strong on border security. That’s why I’m proud to endorse my congresswoman, Nancy Mace, for reelection.”
Indeed, Trump is initiating a fight on Haley’s home turf.
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The former ambassador lives in the 1st District and is still respected in South Carolina despite friction with the former president stemming from her criticism of his handling of the post-election period when he refused to concede to Biden and argued the 2020 contest was stolen from him. Trump continues to make unsupported claims he defeated Biden. Their falling out is threatening to derail her White House ambitions.
Mace is still better off with the former governor’s backing than without it.
“Her endorsement does carry weight,” a GOP operative in the state said.
