Nancy Mace Crashes Out of Governor's Race After Trump Endorsed Rival She Said He Wasn't Backing

Rep. Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who once branded herself “Trump in high heels,” conceded the state’s GOP governor’s primary on Tuesday, after landing in fifth place.

Mace ended her bid Tuesday night, shortly after Decision Desk HQ projected at 8:26 p.m. ET that Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson would advance to a runoff.

With most votes counted, Mace was in fifth place with around 12 percent, according to multiple outlets reporting on election night results, while Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette moved toward a June 23 runoff.

Mace launched her campaign for governor in August last year, after building a national profile as one of the House GOP’s most recognizable and combative figures. For a time, the race looked very different: a Stratus Intelligence survey released by her own campaign conducted March 9–11 showed her leading the Republican primary field with 24 percent of likely voters, six points ahead of the nearest competitor.

By election night, that advantage had vanished. Mace conceded before the race ended and quickly said she would support Wilson, a candidate she had sharply criticized during the campaign. She also said she had accepted an offer to help a Wilson administration pursue sexual criminals.

“And apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election,” Mace said in her concession speech, according to FOX Carolina.

The concession marked a stunning reversal for a congresswoman who had tried to claim the pro-Trump lane even as Trump himself moved elsewhere.

In late May, Mace publicly insisted that Evette had not secured Trump’s backing. She tweeted, “Pamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP. Do not believe her LIES,” alongside an AI-generated video showing Mace and Trump together giving thumbs up.

Hours later, Trump endorsed Evette. He called her “an America First Patriot who has been with me from the very beginning,” less than two weeks before the primary.

Mace tried to keep her argument alive after the endorsement. “I’m still the MAGA candidate. I support all of MAGA’s policies. I support our president. I’m also an independent conservative,” she told Politico.

Mace tied her defeat to a decision she said put her at odds with her own party: calling for the release of the Epstein files. In her concession speech, she said she believed that choice cost her the governorship.

After Trump backed Evette, Mace made a similar point about what she would and would not trade for political support. “If this is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it,” she wrote on X.

Her break with Trump had already drawn scrutiny from political observers. Robert Oldendick, a University of South Carolina professor, told Newsweek, “When she was originally elected, she was very confident and was loyal to Trump, and then she has crossed him on various things and has been controversial.”

The race now continues without Mace. Wilson and Evette will face each other in the June 23 runoff, while Mace has said she does not plan to seek reelection to Congress. She referenced her earlier pledge to serve only six years, meaning her primary defeat appears to close her elected political career for now.

The South Carolina result also arrived amid broader attention on Republicans who pushed for Epstein-related transparency and then faced Trump-backed opposition.

In Kentucky, Thomas Massie lost his primary after clashing with Trump over the issue. Steve Voss, a University of Kentucky professor, told TIME, “Massie’s defeat sends the clearest message yet that the Republican Party is Donald Trump’s party.”