'I Kind of Want to Whittle Sticks': Nancy Mace Says She's Done With Elected Office
Maceopedia ·
As first reported by Maayan Schechter of South Carolina Public Radio, outgoing Lowcountry Congresswoman Nancy Mace used a Washington business dinner to close the door on elected office and to describe, in her own words, what she wants next.
"I Kind of Want to Whittle Sticks"
Asked directly by POLITICO's Jonathan Martin whether any non-elected public-life job would appeal to her, Mace answered flatly:
"No."
Then she offered a picture of the life she says she is after:
"I kind of want to whittle sticks for a while."
Martin was moderating the South Carolina Manufacturers and Commerce's Washington Night, a yearly gathering of business leaders who meet to hear from the state's federal delegation. Mace, who leaves office in January 2027, told the room she is ready to be "normal Nancy" again.
"Three Terms and Then I Would Be Done"
Mace framed her exit as a promise kept:
"When I ran for the House, I said I would serve three terms and then I would be done. And I fulfilled that promise."
"I loved it though. I loved serving."
For the record: the "three terms" line is Mace's own characterization. She signed the U.S. Term Limits Amendment Pledge (a promise to vote for a constitutional amendment capping House service), which is not the same as a documented 2020 personal commitment to leave after her own third term. Maceopedia has previously noted that distinction.
Context
Mace was first elected to the U.S. House in 2020, flipping the 1st District seat back to Republican control and becoming the first Republican woman from South Carolina elected to Congress. She had previously served in the state House.
Rather than seek re-election in 2026, she ran for governor and finished out of the running in the June Republican primary. She has since launched the GET MACED podcast and spent recent weeks in commentary mode online.
In the 1st District race to succeed her, Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt will face Democrat Nancy Lacore in November, with Libertarian Bill Reeside also on the ballot.
Sources & Related Coverage
- South Carolina Public Radio, "SC Congresswoman Nancy Mace says she's ready for life outside of political office" (Aug. 20, 2026), by Maayan Schechter
- Maceopedia: Rare Earth, Wellness, and Defense Tech: Mace's Post-Congress Wish List
- Maceopedia: How "Normal" Is "Normal Nancy"?
- Maceopedia: "Not That I Had a Filter Before": Mace Plans Companies and Commentary After Congress
Maceopedia: Cataloging the internet record about Nancy Mace.
Read next
- August 21, 2026 · Dispatch
Rare Earth, Wellness, and Defense Tech: Nancy Mace's Post-Congress Wish List
- August 21, 2026 · Dispatch
How 'Normal' Is 'Normal Nancy'?
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On the July 22, 2026 episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, Rep. Nancy Mace reacted to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's call for the federal government to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu by asking "how many Jews voted for Mamdani," calling Jewish New Yorkers who backed him "self-loathing," and saying she is perplexed by "this guy coming to America eight years ago from Kampala." Mamdani moved to New York in 1999, at age 7; eight years ago matches his 2018 naturalization, not his arrival. When Morgan called her words "an extraordinary charge," Mace repeated them. Later in the same episode Morgan put her quote to Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon twice; Danon declined to agree both times.
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Rep. Nancy Mace spent election night on Piers Morgan Uncensored's live panel in Washington. Watching the House seat she is leaving slip toward a Democrat, she said, 'I just found out, we're losing my seat,' and then, 'the only thing worse than being fed a pile of shit is being asked to swallow it.' When CBS called South Carolina's Senate race for Democrat Annie Andrews, she said, 'It's not unfucking real,' and added, 'Sorry, you said I could curse.' Two hours earlier she had said of Andrews, 'This was not a hard race.' She was not on the ballot. She said she won the seat by 18 points in 2024; it was 16.6. She called herself one of 'the only four Republicans who voted to release the Epstein files'; the House vote was 427 to 1, and the four were the Republicans who signed the discharge petition. Every quote below is checked against the broadcast audio.
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Rep. Nancy Mace has promoted her Speak Your Truth Act, H.R. 10783, in nine X posts since October 12. The bill would make a plaintiff who loses a federal defamation suit over a statement about sexual assault, harassment or discrimination pay the defendant's lawyers. We read the 445 replies X showed under those posts. 37 asked about people who are falsely accused, and 21 more pointed to her own accusations; 47 supported the bill. The accusations her replies raised include the ones she made from the House floor on February 10, 2025. The only defamation suit over those that has ended, Brian Musgrave's, was decided in federal court on immunity, with the judge offering 'no opinion concerning the truthfulness or the lack of truthfulness' of her allegations. The state's prosecutors did weigh the evidence. In August, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote that SLED's report 'offers zero evidence that Mr. Musgrave committed any crime,' Solicitors Duffie Stone and Kevin Brackett concurred, and Brackett wrote that Musgrave 'is completely innocent.' He was never charged. The bill has no cosponsors and has not moved since October 9.
November 3, 2026 · DispatchNancy Mace Says She Promised Three Terms in 2020. The Only Pledge on Record Says Something Else.
Nancy Mace says that when she first ran for the House in 2020 she promised to serve only three terms. The pledge she signed as a candidate in 2019, the U.S. Term Limits pledge, is a promise to co-sponsor and vote for a term limits amendment; it does not say the signer will leave office. We searched the 2020 record for the personal promise she describes and found it in no source from 2020. This page sets her statements beside the record, with every source.