Part of: The House Ethics reimbursement investigation (2025-2026) · House Ethics Committee Investigation of Rep. Nancy Mace (OCC Review 25-5681)
Mace fundraises in the Capitol Rotunda on live TV; ethics watchdog files complaint
On October 4, 2023, Rep. Nancy Mace appeared on Fox Business from inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and told viewers she was fundraising off the political moment in real time. Federal law bars soliciting campaign contributions in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties. An ethics watchdog filed a complaint with the OCE the next day.
On October 4, 2023, Rep. Nancy Mace appeared on Fox Business in a segment broadcast from the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and told viewers, on camera, that she was fundraising at that very moment.
"You're damn right I'm fundraising off of this right now because the establishment is coming after me," Mace said, per The Daily Beast's reporting on the segment.
A federal law bars members of Congress from soliciting campaign contributions "in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties," according to Campaign for Accountability's complaint, which contends that the U.S. Capitol, including the Rotunda, is such a building.
The ethics complaint. The following day, October 5, 2023, the Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, according to The Daily Beast. Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, said: "Rep. Mace appears to have broken federal law and House rules so brazenly as to defy explanation."
No formal finding of a violation resulted from that complaint. The OCE, which later became the Office of Congressional Conduct, did not publicly confirm or deny whether it opened a formal review stemming from the 2023 Rotunda complaint. Mace was not charged with any crime in connection with the incident.
The Rotunda fundraising episode is a separate strand from the 2025-2026 OCC reimbursement investigation (Review No. 25-5681), which concerns lodging reimbursements from her Members' Representational Allowance, not campaign fundraising.
Sources: The Daily Beast, Justin Baragona (Oct. 5, 2023) · House Ethics Investigation · Ethics Investigation hub
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