Part of: 2026 Governor Campaign
On CNN's election-night board, anchors can't find Mace, John King places her 'at the bottom of the pack' as she finishes last in the GOP governor's primary
During CNN's June 9, 2026 coverage of the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, anchor Kaitlan Collins and data analyst John King could not initially locate Nancy Mace among the leading candidates on the results board. King scrolled to the bottom of the field to find her, calling Mace 'at the bottom of the pack.' Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson advanced to a June 23 runoff; Mace finished near the bottom of the major Republican field.
On the night of June 9, 2026, as returns came in from South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial primary, CNN turned to the governor's race, and, on air, its anchors could not immediately find Nancy Mace on the results board. Mace had entered the contest as an early front-runner; by election night she was nowhere near the top of the displayed field.
Reporting credit: This moment was first reported by The Daily Beast, Olivia Ralph, "Nancy Mace Hit With Total Embarrassment During CNN Segment" (June 10, 2026). The Daily Beast's article and its screen grabs of CNN's coverage are the source for the on-air exchange quoted below.
As reported by The Daily Beast, anchor Kaitlan Collins looked at the leaders and said she could not see Mace among them:
"We're looking at those top three people. I don't see Nancy Mace's name on that list.", Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Data analyst John King then scrolled down the board to locate her, past other candidates, before placing her at the bottom:
"You've got to come way down here below the businessman Rom Reddy.", John King, CNN
"Nancy Mace… the congresswoman, Trump foe, at the bottom of the pack.", John King, CNN
The returns reflected a wide loss. Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson led the Republican field and advanced to a June 23 runoff, with neither winning a majority outright. Mace finished near the bottom of the major candidates; The Daily Beast reported her at roughly 11.6 percent and in fifth place with about two-thirds of ballots counted. Former President Donald Trump had endorsed Evette over Mace on May 29, 2026.
Mace conceded the race on X, framing the defeat as a chapter rather than an ending:
"Serving South Carolina has been the greatest honor of my life. This isn't the end of the fight. It's just the end of this chapter.", Nancy Mace, on X
Watch the segment
The clip of the CNN exchange, the same one embedded in The Daily Beast's report, is below. It plays from The Daily Beast's own video player: an 80-second cut of CNN's election-night coverage of the South Carolina returns.
Video: The Daily Beast player, "Nancy Mace Hit With Total Embarrassment During CNN Segment", footage from CNN's June 9, 2026 election-night coverage. For the full evening, C-SPAN's gavel-to-gavel primary-night program is also available.
Vote figures cited here are as reported during the count; the certified canvass governs the official results. The "embarrassment" characterization is The Daily Beast's.
Sources & related coverage:
- The Daily Beast, Olivia Ralph, "Nancy Mace Hit With Total Embarrassment During CNN Segment" (the originating report)
- Roll Call, "Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman lose bids for governor in South Carolina"
- The Washington Post, "South Carolina primary election live results"
- CNN Politics, official South Carolina primary live results
- C-SPAN, primary-night coverage (video)
- See also the 2026 Governor Campaign entry.
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Minutes after Nancy Mace conceded her fifth-place finish in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nalin Haley, the son of former governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, quote-tweeted her concession with 'DING DONG THE WITCH IS GONE!,' then added 'Free at last, free at last.' The jab capped a four-year arc: in 2022 Nikki Haley cut TV ads calling Mace 'tough as nails' and 'a fighter' and helped her beat a Trump-backed primary challenger; in January 2024 Mace repaid her by endorsing Donald Trump over Haley, in Haley's home state, the day before the New Hampshire primary. The Haley camp had spent election day boosting Mace's rivals.
June 19, 2026 · DispatchTrump endorses both SC runoff candidates: 'These were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff'
On June 19, 2026, four days before the June 23 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial runoff, President Trump posted on Truth Social that rather than choose between the two candidates still standing, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson, he would endorse both. He wrote that 'these were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff, and they did.' Neither is Nancy Mace, who finished fifth (about 12.1 percent) in the June 9 primary and has said her vote to release the Epstein files cost her Trump's support. The Washington Post had reported on June 16 that Trump was weighing exactly this dual endorsement. Post & Courier reporter Caitlin Byrd surfaced the post.
June 11, 2026 · DispatchMace vows to be 'more of a menace than ever' after the primary loss
Days after her fifth-place finish in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nancy Mace struck a defiant tone, signaling she would stay politically active and saying she intends to be 'more of a menace than ever' as her House term winds down.
June 11, 2026 · Dispatch‘Welcome back, Nancy Mace’: after a fifth-place primary loss, a viral Waffle House meme sends the self-described former waitress back to the marquee
After Rep. Nancy Mace finished fifth in the June 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, a meme spread online showing a Waffle House marquee reading ‘WELCOME BACK NANCY MACE!’ The joke lands on Mace's own oft-repeated biography, ‘high school dropout turned Waffle House waitress’, which she has invoked for years, from celebrating her 2020 congressional win at the Waffle House where she once worked to donning a paper Waffle House cap during her 2026 governor bid. The sign is a digital meme, not a real marquee.
June 10, 2026 · Dispatch‘You tanked yourself’: in a viral Facebook reel captioned ‘Called it,’ Michelle Shara narrates Mace's fall from ‘leading the race’ to ‘bringing up the rear’
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June 10, 2026 · DispatchAfter Mace finishes fifth in the governor's primary, a circulating post-election essay calls her collapse 'years in the making', Mace blames her Epstein-files vote
A post-election essay by writer Mike Broemmel, circulating on Facebook, frames Nancy Mace's fifth-place finish in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary as the cumulative result of years of staff turnover, feuds and controversy, 'the cumulative effect of chaos.' Mace finished last among the major candidates with about 11 percent and did not advance to the June 23 runoff between Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson. Mace has denied the kinds of former-staff accounts the essay recycles and attributes her defeat to her vote to release the Epstein files.