The Washington Post traces Nancy Mace's 'rough downfall' to her fifth-place primary loss, and former allies, including Kevin McCarthy, go on the record: 'I just watched her change'

On June 9, 2026, Nancy Mace finished fifth, last among the major candidates, in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, failing to carry even her own home county and district and not advancing to the June 23 runoff between Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson. The next morning, The Washington Post published a post-mortem on how a once-rising star ended up there.

Reporting credit: This dispatch summarizes reporting by The Washington Post, Natalie Allison, "Nancy Mace's thrashing in South Carolina governor's race caps a rough downfall" (June 10, 2026; Erin Cox contributed). Headlined online "Once a rising star, Nancy Mace suffers resounding defeat in governor's race," the piece draws on interviews with more than a dozen former aides, colleagues and supporters in South Carolina and Washington, several of whom spoke on the record. The quotes below are as reported by the Post.

"A blunt defeat"

The Post's lead is unsparing: Mace's "trouncing" in the primary "dealt a blunt defeat to a once rising GOP star, a politician who had basked in national attention during her dramatic political transformation." Allison writes that Mace "had real political talent and promise, but her downfall and isolation followed years of brazen political opportunism, a hunger for media attention at any cost, rejecting advisers' counsel and turning on many allies."

Mace arrived in Congress in 2021 after flipping a Charleston-area district and built a reputation as a moderate, she voted to codify same-sex marriage rights, called herself "pro transgender rights" and urged her party to "meet in the middle" with Democrats on abortion. By 2025, the Post notes, she was mocking transgender people with a slur on social media and, "in recent days," suggested a Republican opponent in the governor's race came from "a slum in India."

Former allies, on the record

The most striking feature of the Post's account is how many of Mace's onetime allies were willing to attach their names to harsh assessments.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had helped Mace unseat Democrat Joe Cunningham in 2020, then watched her cast an unexpected vote for his ouster as speaker in 2023, told the paper he had watched her "political and personal life unravel":

"The only thing I hope is she gets the help she needs.", Kevin McCarthy, to The Washington Post

"I helped her win. But I just watched her change along the way. … Some people warned when she was an early candidate, 'Watch out, she's not all there.' I didn't.", Kevin McCarthy, to The Washington Post

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who said he got along with Mace early on, told the Post her vote to push McCarthy out "was a tough pill for many of us to swallow," and recounted his reply when he found her staff at lunch:

"I used to really like her. Not anymore. We can't work with her.", Rep. Don Bacon, to The Washington Post

Will Hampson, one of Mace's former communications directors, offered the line that frames the whole piece:

"I don't think Nancy Mace has ever seen a bridge in her life that she hasn't burned down.", Will Hampson, to The Washington Post

"She was her own best weapon, and own worst enemy.", Will Hampson, to The Washington Post

And Justin Evans, a longtime South Carolina GOP operative who now works for primary winner Pam Evette, credited Mace's gifts even as he questioned her character:

"She was a good-looking, talented communicator, had the social media following, had all the ingredients that a successful candidate should have. It's just her moral compass was completely missing.", Justin Evans, to The Washington Post

Not every voice was critical. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told the Post that Mace "would interact with Democrats in a way very few Republicans do, because she has sided with victims of sexual violence and sexual harassment," and that "in her more freethinking, uninhibited moments," she was willing to break with her party.

The episodes the Post catalogs

Allison's piece walks through a series of public incidents over the past two years. Maceopedia notes these strictly as the Post reported them, several touch on matters that are contested or the subject of ongoing legal disputes, and the named parties deny the underlying allegations:

• In February 2025, amid a split from her ex-fiancé, Mace spoke on the House floor for nearly an hour accusing him and three other men of rape and other sex crimes, allegations the men have denied and which remain contested and unadjudicated. (Maceopedia takes no position on the merits.)
• At a later congressional hearing on surveillance, she displayed what the Post describes as a "naked silhouette" photo of herself, saying it had been taken without her consent.
• The Post reports, citing two anonymous witnesses, a previously unreported and unverified account of a May 1, 2025 scene in Huger, S.C., in which Mace allegedly confronted her nephew, John Mace McGrath, over his acceptance of an endorsement from Alan Wilson, with the witnesses quoting a threat that "you're going to pay for that someday." After conceding, Mace endorsed Wilson in the runoff, despite having spent the past year accusing him of being a "pedophile protector."
• An October confrontation at the Charleston airport, in which a police report described an expletive-laced tirade; Mace refused to apologize, called the report "fabricated," and threatened to sue the airport for defamation. South Carolina's Republican senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, criticized her conduct, as did dozens of local officials.

The Post also reports that Mace's congressional office "frequently shed staff," with her entire nine-member team turning over in a three-month span after the McCarthy vote, and traces her on-again, off-again relationship with President Trump, whose endorsement she sought for governor before he backed Evette on May 29, 2026. No high-profile Republican endorsed her campaign.

Mace's own account

Mace and her campaign did not return the Post's requests for comment. She has previously accused her former staff of mismanaging money and spying on her, and has dismissed criticism that she is overly focused on attention. In conceding, she did not point to staff controversy but framed her record as a fight on her constituents' behalf:

"Every vote I cast, every hearing I called, every fight I picked, it was always for you.", Nancy Mace

"I will always be grateful for the people of South Carolina who trusted me, fought with me, and refused to look the other way. This isn't the end of the fight. It's just the end of this chapter.", Nancy Mace

Elsewhere she has attributed the defeat to her vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, a vote, the Post notes, that Trump "did not publicly criticize her for supporting."

The characterizations quoted above are the words of the named sources, reported by The Washington Post, and are their opinions. Allegations involving Mace's ex-fiancé and others remain contested and unadjudicated; those parties deny them, and nothing here is a finding of fact. Vote figures are as reported during the count; the certified canvass governs the official result.

Sources & related coverage:

• The Washington Post, Natalie Allison, "Nancy Mace's thrashing in South Carolina governor's race caps a rough downfall" (the originating report; Erin Cox contributed)
• Primary result via NBC News, Roll Call and The Washington Post live results
• Concession and endorsement via The Hill
• See also the election-night dispatch "at the bottom of the pack", the "collapse… years in the making" dispatch, and the 2026 Governor Campaign entry.