# Nancy Mace U.S. Representative from South Carolina's 1st district since 2021, and the **losing candidate in the 2026 Republican primary for Governor of South Carolina**. The first woman to graduate from The Citadel's Corps of Cadets (1999), Mace has one of the most dramatic political loyalty arcs in recent Republican politics: she publicly blamed [[Donald Trump]] for [[January 6th]], then executed a full reversal to become a vocal Trump supporter — a transformation that encapsulates the party's post-insurrection recalibration. ## The 2026 governor's race — resolved Mace gave up her House seat to run for governor and **finished fifth** in the June 9, 2026 Republican primary with about **12.1%** of the vote. Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette (roughly 29%) and Attorney General [[Alan Wilson]] (roughly 26%) advanced to a runoff, with Representative Ralph Norman third at about 17%. **Wilson won the June 23 runoff decisively** and became the Republican nominee. Trump had endorsed Evette before the first round and added a co-endorsement of Wilson before the runoff; he never endorsed Mace. She attributed the snub — and her defeat — to her support for releasing the Epstein files. Her House term runs to **January 3, 2027**, and she has said she does not plan to seek elected office again. ## Officeholder exclusion and H.J.Res.188 On **May 20, 2026**, Mace introduced **H.J.Res.188**, a proposed constitutional amendment that would require members of Congress, federal judges at every level, and all Senate-confirmed officers — including ambassadors — to be **natural born citizens**. The Constitution imposes that requirement on the presidency alone; for Congress it sets durational citizenship requirements instead, seven years for the House and nine for the Senate. See [[Qualifications Clauses]]. Her announcement named sitting members it would have barred had it been in force: [[Ilhan Omar]], [[Pramila Jayapal]] and Shri Thanedar. The resolution is prospective, so no current officeholder would lose a seat, and it had no cosponsors on introduction. As a constitutional amendment rather than a statute it is the one procedurally coherent route to the result — which is also a concession that the present Constitution forbids it. Mace is the highest-profile federal sponsor of a push that has run mainly through state legislatures — Tennessee's HB 2036 and Alabama's SB 21 among them. Asked about it by *[[The Atlantic]]* staff writer Toluse Olorunnipa in August 2026, she said: > [!quote] "This isn't personal. It's about what standard we want for the people entrusted with enormous power over the American people." > — Nancy Mace, to Toluse Olorunnipa, *The Atlantic*, August 27, 2026 The preposition is the tell, and [[Heather Cox Richardson]] flagged it: elected officials in a republic are entrusted with the power **of** the American people, not power **over** them. The formulation describes officeholding as dominion, which is the premise that makes a citizenship test for candidates sound like a safeguard rather than a disqualification of voters' choices. Former representative [[Mo Brooks]] (R-AL) objected on tactical grounds, calling the exclusion push "one of the dumbest tactical moves I've ever seen politicians make." ## Related - [[Donald Trump]] — the axis around which her political identity has rotated; declined to endorse her for governor - [[Qualifications Clauses]] — the constitutional provisions H.J.Res.188 would amend - [[Ilhan Omar]] · [[Pramila Jayapal]] — members named in her announcement - [[Mo Brooks]] — the intra-party tactical objection - [[Nativism]] · [[Birthright Citizenship Attack]] - [[2026 Governor Races Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]] - [[Alan Wilson]] — won the primary runoff she failed to reach