Prominent Anti-Trans Republican Nancy Mace, Who Called For Trans People to be Institutionalized, Suffers Humiliating Primary Loss

In the final days of Mace’s gubernatorial campaign, Trump endorsed her rival in retaliation for her role in releasing the Epstein files.

South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace | Image: Wikimedia Commons

Today, House Republican Nancy Mace, who has represented South Carolina’s 1st District since 2021, was resoundingly defeated in her bid to become the next governor of South Carolina. With 54% of votes counted, Mace has only garnered 11.4% of the vote in the Republican primary, a figure that places her in 5th place out of 7 candidates and dead last among those still in the race. Tonight’s result means that Mace will exit public office when her term expires next January and likely spells the end of her political career.

If her name seems familiar, that’s for good reason. Over the past two years, Mace—who once described herself as “pro-transgender rights”—has repeatedly made headlines for her extreme anti-trans positions. Shortly after Trump’s election in November 2024, Mace successfully convinced House Speaker Mike Johnson to implement a trans bathroom ban in the Capitol. Her push was meant to target openly trans Rep. Sarah McBride, who had just been elected two weeks prior and indicated she’d follow the rules. 

Unwilling to let the issue rest there, in January 2025, Mace and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert entered the women’s restroom and confronted a cis woman they mistook for McBride. It’s worth noting that while Boebert ended up apologizing for the incident, Mace never did.

Then, in May, Mace went on to say this during a House hearing:

“I believe the trans movement is radicalized. Its [sic] a cult. Trans people and their supporters fuel violence, particularly toward women who speak the truth and toward elected officials who refuse to be bullied. Men who crossdress as women are mentally ill. They are violent toward women.”

The preceding month, Mace had gone viral for using the ‘tranny’ slur to refer to trans people while speaking at the University of South Carolina. When she was confronted by a trans student over her language, she mocked the student for finding it ‘derogatory.’ Mace repeated the word three times while recounting the incident a few days later.

And that’s not all. September 2025, shortly after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Mace—without evidence—repeated the right-wing myth that the shooter had been a trans person during a press interview, again using the slur ‘tranny’ in the process. Immediately following that statement, Mace went on to declare that trans people “are violently ill and should be in a straight jacket with a hard steel lock on it.”

A month before that outburst, Mace announced her run for the next year’s gubernatorial election in South Carolina and, because of her national profile, she was considered a frontrunner by media and polls alike. This perception held until April, when Mace’s polling numbers started to slip. A big reason? Donald Trump, who turned against her after she successfully pushed to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act—just like he did with Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie. Trump endorsed her rival, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, last week, all but sealing her fate.

Following this resounding defeat, Mace will exit office—and the public spotlight—next January, likely bringing her political career to a close. In doing so, she’ll be removing a prominent and extreme anti-trans voice from the halls of Congress. Hopefully, she doesn’t let the door hit her on her way out.