US Rep. Nancy Mace wins a third term as she cements her support in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace on Tuesday cemented her hold on her seat in a state that doesn’t mind sending people back to Congress for decades.

Mace defeated Democratic businessman and former International African American Museum CEO Michael Moore to win a third term.

There had been questions over whether Mace’s attention-seeking personality and brashness and willingness to buck her party’s establishment could be a liability. But her coastal 1st District continues to embrace her.

“After tonight, anyone who dare takes a shot at me — you better not miss,” Mace said Tuesday night at her victory party. “And for those who aim to divide us, you are outnumbered.”

Mace flipped the seat back to Republicans in 2020 after a stunning upset of incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham. She fought off a GOP challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump in 2022 and breezed to a surprisingly easy win — this time with Trump’s backing — in the 2024 Republican primary without a runoff.

Her fellow Republicans in the South Carolina General Assembly also did her a favor by redrawing the district and sending traditional Democratic precincts in and around downtown Charleston to the state’s only majority-minority district. Under the old map in 2020, Mace won less than 51% of the vote. With the new maps in 2022 she received more than 56%.

Moore and Mace’s Republican opponents in the 2024 primary said she is more concerned with national attention and pet causes like legalizing marijuana than helping out people in her district. She joined seven hard-right members of the U.S. House to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Mace said it’s her way of fighting for the voters in her eclectic district, which includes centuries-old neighborhoods near Charleston and massive developments of retirees around Beaufort who have moved to South Carolina.

“The simplest explanation is almost always the correct one. I am on your side,” Mace said Tuesday night.

Mace is now on her way to becoming a fixture in South Carolina’s U.S. House delegation like Democrat Jim Clyburn, who was elected to a 17th term, or Republican Joe Wilson, who won a 12th term.

Wilson defeated Democrat David Robinson II in the 2nd District, which includes suburban areas around Columbia and to the west and south toward Aiken.

Wilson is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is the most senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. He also is remembered as the congressman who shouted “You lie!” at Barack Obama during the president’s joint address to Congress about health care in 2009.

Clyburn has represented the state’s 6th District since it was drawn in 1992 to have a majority of minority voters. This year, he defeated Republican challenger and attorney Duke Buckner in the sprawling district that is bounded by areas around Charleston, Beaufort and Columbia.

Clyburn is a key member of the U.S. House’s Democratic leadership and his endorsement of President Joe Biden just before the 2020 South Carolina presidential primary sparked his longtime friend’s path to victory.

Republican U.S. Rep. William Timmons won a fourth term in the 4th District that includes Greenville and Spartanburg.

Perhaps no challenger worked harder than his opponent, Democrat Kathryn Harvey. She raised a surprising amount of money and traveled all over the district while Timmons spent most of his time outside the state campaigning for Republicans in races he thinks are more competitive as he tries to make sure the U.S. House stays in GOP control.

For the second election in a row, Timmons had to win a tough Republican primary where his opponent tried to paint him as liberal.

But the 4th District, which has sent a Republican to Washington in every election since 1992, remains solidly conservative.

South Carolina will have at least one new face in the U.S. House. Nurse practitioner and Air National Guard officer Sheri Biggs won an open seat Tuesday to become only the second Republican woman to head to Congress from South Carolina, following Mace.

Biggs takes over from Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, who decided not to run for an eighth term in the 3rd District, which is the most Republican in the solidly conservative state. The district in the northwest corner of the state contains several small population centers.

U.S. Rep. Russel Fry won a second term in the 7th District that stretches from Myrtle Beach to Florence in the northeast part of the state. Fry knocked off an incumbent Republican in 2022 who voted to impeach Trump.

And in the 5th District, Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman will get a fourth full term in the district runs from Rock Hill in the Charlotte, North Carolina, suburbs south and east to Sumter.

Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press