Trump endorses Nancy Mace despite past disagreements

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on Saturday as she vies for a third term in the House of Representatives.

“It is my great honor to Endorse a Strong Conservative Voice for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Nancy Mace worked hard campaigning across South Carolina in support of our Record-Breaking WIN. In Congress, she is fighting to Secure the Border, Strengthen our Military, Support our Veterans, Uphold the Rule of Law, Stop Political Weaponization, and Protect and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment. Congresswoman Nancy Mace has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Mace endorsed Trump for president in January, a week after he won the Iowa caucuses. She celebrated the former president’s endorsement in a post on social media, asking supporters to contribute to her campaign as she battles a somewhat crowded Republican primary field, which includes her former chief of staff.

Though the two Republicans have endorsed each other, their relationship has not always been rosy. Mace worked on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but she also was quick to condemn the former president’s actions in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. She suggested that Congress should consider censuring him and rejected efforts to overturn the 2020 election but ultimately voted against impeaching him.

“Everything that he’s worked for … all of that, his entire legacy, was wiped out yesterday,” Mace said the day after. “We’ve got to start over.”

Even when she endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, it was not with the same enthusiasm as others who have received the former president’s coveted backing.

“I don’t see eye to eye perfectly with any candidate,” Mace wrote in a social media post. “And until now I’ve stayed out of it. But the time has come to unite behind our nominee.”

Trump’s endorsement of Mace also marks a departure from his 2022 stance, when he instead backed primary opponent Katie Arrington, who worked in his administration. The former president called Mace an “absolutely terrible candidate … whose remarks and attitude have been devastating for her community, and not at all representative of the Republican Party to which she has been very disloyal.”

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Mace defeated Arrington in the 2022 Republican primary in her district by about 8 percentage points. After narrowly knocking off Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Wilson in 2020, she cruised to reelection by a much more comfortable margin two years later.

South Carolina’s Republican congressional primary elections are scheduled for June 11.