Part of: January 6 & the Trump Relationship · 2026 Governor Campaign
'Ding dong the witch is gone': Nikki Haley's son toasts Mace's defeat, four years after his mother's ads helped save her seat
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.
At 8:53 p.m. on June 9, 2026, the night Nancy Mace finished fifth and last among the major candidates in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nalin Haley quote-tweeted Mace's concession and wrote five words:
"DING DONG THE WITCH IS GONE!", Nalin Haley (@Nalin_Haley), June 9, 2026
Five minutes later he replied to himself: "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last." The witch in question was Mace, and the post Nalin was dunking on was her own farewell, "Serving South Carolina has been the greatest honor of my life… I would choose [to speak up] every" time.
DING DONG THE WITCH IS GONE!
Nalin Haley (@Nalin_Haley) June 9, 2026
Nalin Haley's quote-tweet of Mace's concession post, the night of the primary. He is the son of former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. View the original post on X.
Nalin Haley, 24, is not a candidate or an officeholder; he is Nikki Haley's son and a prolific America First poster whose account, as FITSNews has put it, "is viewed by many political operatives as a window into what his mother is truly thinking, but may not want to say publicly." That makes the glee notable, because there was a time the Haley family was the reason Nancy Mace still had a career to lose.
2022: Haley went to bat for Mace
When Mace drew a primary challenge in 2022 from Katie Arrington, who carried Donald Trump's "complete and total endorsement," and whom Trump rallied for while calling Mace "terrible" and "despised by almost everyone", it was Nikki Haley who stepped in on Mace's side. Haley, who lives in Mace's Lowcountry district, headlined a Charleston fundraiser, and cut television ads vouching for her. In the spots, as reported by Mediaite, Haley praised Mace as "tough as nails" and as "a fighter who stands up to Biden's reckless spending, punches back against lawless lockdowns and mandates, and is strong on border security."
It worked. Mace beat Arrington on June 14, 2022, surviving the Trump-backed challenge with Haley's name and money behind her.
2024: Mace endorsed Trump over Haley
Eighteen months later, with Haley running for president against Trump in her own home state, Mace chose Trump. On January 22, 2024, the day before the New Hampshire primary, Mace endorsed Donald Trump over Nikki Haley, declaring that "the time has come to unite behind our nominee" and that it had "been a complete shit show since [Trump] left the White House." (Maceopedia's dispatch on that endorsement is here.)
The optics were hard to miss: the woman who had cut ads to save Mace's seat was now being passed over, in her own backyard, for the man who had tried to end Mace's career two years earlier.
The years since: the feud the family never let go
The Haleys did not forget. In July 2025, as Mace prepared to launch her run for governor, Nalin Haley laced into her on X. As FITSNews reported, he accused her of having "agreed to endorse Nikki Haley until you got scared and backed out like a spineless coward," and called her "the most selfish person in office, a fraud, and an embarrassment to South Carolina who lacks the leadership skills needed to even be a manager at Waffle House." (FITSNews noted one swipe was simply wrong: Nalin claimed Mace had "voted to impeach" Trump; she did not.)
On primary day itself, Nalin was openly rooting for the field against her, posting "SOUTH CAROLINA! Go vote and let your voice be heard" and tagging Mace's rivals. Hours later, when the returns put Mace at the bottom of the pack, unable even to carry her own home county, he got the result he'd asked for, and the "ding dong" post was his victory lap.
There is no record of Nikki Haley herself weighing in on Mace's defeat. She did not have to. Her son's account did the talking, and on June 9 it said the relationship that began with "tough as nails" had ended, as far as the Haleys were concerned, with "the witch is gone."
Nalin Haley's posts are his own opinion, not statements of fact, and the characterizations above are his. The 2022 ad quotes are Nikki Haley's as reported by the outlets cited; the 2024 endorsement quote is Mace's own. Vote figures are as reported during the count; the certified canvass governs the official result.
Sources & related coverage:
- Nalin Haley on X, "DING DONG THE WITCH IS GONE!" (June 9, 2026) and the follow-up "Free at last, free at last…"; his primary-day "go vote" post
- 2022 support, Mediaite, "Nancy Mace Survived a Challenge from a Trump-Backed Opponent With Nikki Haley's Help. But Now, She's Endorsing Trump." · Ballotpedia, "Nancy Mace defeats Katie Arrington"
- 2024 endorsement, CNBC, "Rep. Nancy Mace backs Donald Trump over Nikki Haley" · ABC News, "How Nancy Mace's complicated history with Trump, Nikki Haley is playing out in South Carolina"
- The feud, FITSNews, "Nancy Mace: Catching Flak Over Her Target"
- See also the endorses-Trump-over-Haley, CNN "bottom of the pack", and WaPo "rough downfall" dispatches, and the 2026 Governor Campaign entry.
Read next
June 9, 2026 · Dispatch'Buried the hatchet': after finishing fifth, Mace concedes the governor's race and endorses Alan Wilson, the rival she spent months branding a 'p*dophile protector'
On the night of June 9, 2026, after finishing fifth in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary with about 11.4% of the vote, Nancy Mace conceded and endorsed the man who advanced to the June 23 runoff, Attorney General Alan Wilson. 'I want a law-and-order governor, and that law-and-order governor is going to be Alan Wilson,' she told supporters, saying that 'in the last couple of weeks, Alan Wilson and I have buried the hatchet.' The endorsement reversed a year of attacks: as recently as November 3, 2025 she had called Wilson a 'p*dophile protector' on X. Wilson has rejected those attacks, his office said Mace 'drastically mischaracterized' prosecution data, and nothing in the exchange is a finding about either man's conduct.
June 9, 2026 · DispatchOn 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.
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’
A Facebook reel by Michelle Shara, viewed more than 358,000 times, pairs footage of Nancy Mace addressing a Greenville County Republican Party meeting with Shara's own deadpan voiceover. Over the clip, Shara needles Mace about collapsing from an early front-runner to a fifth-place finish in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary: ‘last time we saw each other, you were leading the race. How have you managed to tank your campaign so badly that you were just bringing up the rear?’ The one-word caption, ‘Called it,’ frames it as a prediction come true. The harsh lines are Shara's commentary, not Mace's words.