Rep. Nancy Mace touts ties to Trump in campaign-style town hall

CNN

6 days ago

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, fresh off an announced bid for South Carolina's governor's mansion, jockeyed for an endorsement from President Donald Trump and sought to tie herself closely to him in a public meeting with a friendly crowd Wednesday.
While members of her party have been encouraged to hold town halls over their August break from Washington to sell Trump's agenda out in the country, Mace's event – billed as 'The Mother of All Town Halls' – more closely resembled a campaign event.
Mace spoke at length about her plans for governor and answered some questions from a crowd of supporters at a venue outside of South Carolina's First Congressional District, which Mace has represented since 2020. She teased plans to hold similar events across the state.
The three-term congresswoman spent much of her remarks aligning herself with Trump and touting what she's done for the president, specifically citing her 2024 interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that resulted in a $15 million defamation settlement, paid toward Trump's presidential library.
'Trump won that defamation suit, right, and how Nancy Mace will not back down, and Nancy Mace will hold the line,' Mace said.
She continued, 'I haven't told the president this, but my one ask, I just want one ask, because the $15 million is supposed to be used to build his presidential library. I just want my name over a women's bathroom,' she continued, nodding to her pushes to ban transgender women from women's restrooms.
Mace lobbied for an endorsement from Trump, one that will be critical in a crowded GOP gubernatorial primary that includes fellow Trump ally and South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was the target of multiple Mace jabs Wednesday.
'I'm just saying, I've done a lot for the president,' Mace said. 'If you talk to him, I would really like his support for governor.'
In her speech, the congresswoman also continued to claim credit for a $195 million infrastructure grant in the Palmetto State, a grant only possible because of former President Joe Biden's infrastructure law.
'One of the things the press will not tell you: I am one of the leading members of Congress who's gotten resources for our state,' Mace said. 'In fact, our office assisted in getting the largest infrastructure grant in South Carolina history, at $195 million earlier this year. The press won't tell you that.'
Mace at the time joined some of her House Republican colleagues in voting against the measure. Asked by CNN about her ability to tout the grant as an accomplishment despite having not voted for the bill, Mace said she 'absolutely' could.
'We fight over how we spend the money, how we appropriate it, but once the appropriations happen, I'm gonna make sure that South Carolina, that we get our fair share, because that money's getting spent and our tax dollars in South Carolina is equal to anybody else's in California, New York, Tennessee,' she said.
She later continued, 'Just because we disagree on how the money's spent means we shouldn't get money for our roads and bridges? Isn't that kind of hypocritical, that's ironic?'
Mace on Wednesday also backed Texas' efforts to redraw its congressional map, telling reporters she 'would arrest the Texas Legislature' and supports '[Texas GOP Gov. Greg] Abbott in the Texas Legislature to do what's fair, what's right.'
The congresswoman set herself apart from Norman, who pushed Wednesday for the South Carolina State Assembly to redraw the Palmetto State's congressional lines.
'I think our lines are good. We did a great job. The state. Congress doesn't do anything with drawing the lines. We don't have any legal authority, alright? It's done by the state legislature, the judiciary specifically. But the lines were drawn.'
Mace later further separated herself from Norman, who singled out Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn's district as one to target.
'Well, constitutionally, there has to be a seat for a Democrat in a Black, you know, census for Jim Clyburn for a Democrat seat,' Mace said. 'So that's constitutionally, civil rights that exists. It's always going to be a Democrat seat.'