Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham last year sponsored a bill that passed the House to forever ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast, aimed at protecting the tourism economy of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.
But President Trump just handed a gift to Cunningham’s reelection opponent, Republican Nancy Mace, who is making an uphill pitch that she is more opposed to offshore drilling than Democrats in order to swipe one of the most closely contested 2020 House races.
In a speech in Florida this week, with Mace in the audience, Trump announced he would use executive authority to extend an existing moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and expanding it to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, Georgia — and South Carolina.
Trump’s ban would last 10 years from 2022, short of the permanent ban that Cunningham sought. But the GOP Senate blocked Cunningham’s bill from becoming law.
Before the president’s election year change of heart, Mace had been trying to one-up Cunningham, criticizing the Trump administration’s support for offshore drilling.
“I am not just a ‘no’ on offshore drilling. I am a ‘hell no,’” Mace told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “No one gets a free pass, not even the president of the United States.”
It might seem unusual for Mace to seek to outdo Cunningham on an issue such as offshore drilling in a district that Trump won by over 13 points. Trump is a pro-fossil fuel Republican who is only recently highlighting his environmental credentials in a bid to shore up support for him and down-ballot Republicans in coastal states and suburban districts.
Mace, 42, is the former coalitions director for Trump’s 2016 campaign.
But offshore drilling opposition is uniquely bipartisan in South Carolina, whose elected officials fear potential damage from oil spills near beaches that bring $20 billion in annual revenue to the state and support 600,000 tourism jobs.
Mace, a state representative, grew up on South Carolina’s coast, an area locals call “low country,” after her father retired from the Army. She 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.
But Cunningham, a 38-year-old former ocean engineer, in 2018 flipped South Carolina’s 1st District, which had been represented by Republicans for nearly 40 years, by riding the wave against offshore drilling. He’s not about to give up the mantle easily.
He appears to have the edge in the race, with Sabato’s Crystal Ball recently moving it from toss-up to lean Democratic, and predicting Cunningham would run ahead of Joe Biden as a well-funded incumbent. He recently got a boost from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsing him, in a rare break from the business group’s usual support for Republicans.
Cunningham and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are playing offense, accusing Mace of taking money from “pro-drilling” groups. E&E News reported Mace has accepted donations from PACs that support offshore drilling, including the Club for Growth and Koch Industries.
Cunningham has vowed not to accept money from political action committees.
The South Carolina Democrat is also attacking Mace for appearing to be skeptical of climate change, which is mostly caused by fossil fuel production.
Cunningham recently shared a clip of a local interview in which Mace says she is “mixed” on climate change science and recognizes “both sides of the issue.”
“This is downright disqualifying in the Lowcountry,” Cunningham tweeted, noting South Carolina’s propensity for floods caused by sea-level rise. “The Lowcountry can’t afford a climate denier in Congress.”
Asked to clarify her position by the Washington Examiner, Mace repeated she is “not a scientist” and acknowledged sea levels are rising, but whether it is caused by “manmade” climate change or natural reasons is “up for debate.”
Mace accused Cunningham of trying to exploit differences on their environmental records when there are few.
“We are on the same side and same team, and he ought to act that way,” she said.
