Nancy Mace returned South Carolina’s 1st District to Republican control after Democrats scored an upset in 2018.
Mace, 42, the former coalitions director for President Trump’s 2016 campaign, sought to portray her opponent, Joe Cunningham, as a tool of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It was the most expensive House race in South Carolina history and a key target for Republicans hoping to reverse Democratic victories in 2018 in districts won by Trump.
That year, Cunningham flipped South Carolina’s 1st District, which had been represented by Republicans for nearly 40 years, despite Trump winning it by over 13 points in 2016.
Cunningham scored his 2018 upset by focusing relentlessly on his opposition to offshore oil and gas drilling, which had been favored by Republicans despite its unpopularity in South Carolina’s “low country,” as the coastal area is known.
Mace, a state representative, tried to close that gap after Trump surprisingly announced he would use executive authority to extend an existing moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and expanding it to South Carolina. Mace was in the audience when Trump made the announcement in what was seen as a play to help Republicans from coastal areas.
She grew up on South Carolina’s coast after her father retired from the Army. Mace was the first woman to graduate from the Citadel Military College. She says that on her fourth day in the General Assembly in 2018, she filed an anti-offshore drilling bill.
Offshore drilling opposition is uniquely bipartisan in South Carolina, the elected officials of which fear potential damage from oil spills near beaches that bring $20 billion in annual revenue to the state and support 600,000 tourism jobs.
Cunningham and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, seeking to obtain an edge on offshore drilling, accused Mace of taking money from “pro-drilling” groups.
The South Carolina Democrat also attacked Mace for appearing to be skeptical of climate change.
