The Disturbing Reality of Nancy Mace

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)

When Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was first elected to Congress in 2020, she was elected largely under the guise of being a more moderate figure in the party.  Running against incumbent Rep. Joe Cunningham in a right-leaning (but moving to the center) swing district, she needed to strike a more moderate tone, as Cunningham was popular & well-positioned & was very much in the running to win a second term if she didn't pull things together.  Mace won that election, and like many candidates, became more partisan while in office, but generally did try to strike a more moderate balance.  On abortion, for example, she made a point of wanting exemptions for rape victims, talking about how she was sexually assaulted as a teenager, and she voted in favor of the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act in 2021, one of only a handful of Republicans who backed the bill which would provide easier access to birth control.  She also voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which provided protection for same-sex marriage under federal law, and initially stood behind her colleague Liz Cheney when there was an attempt to oust her from the GOP leadership.

Mace's public profile over the past few months, though, has caught significant public attention and honestly concern from neutral observers.  Mace's physical appearance has transformed quite a bit (she has lost a significant amount of weight), which on its own would not be particularly noteworthy, but coupled with some of her actions is something I feel needs to come up in today's article (also, she has blamed the change in her appearance on Twitter by saying it is a result of "PTSD").  Her public statements have become increasingly erratic.  She has talked about drones invading from outer space, or "outside the universe."  She has become deeply transphobic in her public statements, yelling trans slurs during congressional hearings and staging bizarre photo shoots, including accusing someone of attacking her (she even wore a sling in public) when most onlookers observed that the man she accused of assault merely shook her hand.  Mace has publicly worn costumes (including a shirt with the letter "A" on it, referencing The Scarlet Letter), and claimed on Fox News that she had "uncovered" a program funded by the federal government to "make animals trans."  Last night, on the House floor, she claimed to have been drugged-and-raped by her former fiancé and three other men who were part of a pornography ring.  This was done seemingly out of the blue (there are no current pieces of legislation that she was obviously referencing here), and drew condemnation, including from the Attorney General of South Carolina, who pointed out that Mace had never brought these charges to his office, and there was no ongoing investigation against any of the men that Mace showed (publicly) on the floor of the US Congress.

There's a couple of things I want to talk about here.  First, I think it's worth noting that Mace did this on the floor of the US House, not just because it is a foundational bed of a (currently teetering) democracy, but also because it likely makes what she did protected under the first amendment in a way it would not be for an average American.  Members of Congress are given wide latitude under the Constitution in what is called the "Speech and Debate Clause" to be able to speak without punishment.  The exact wording is "for any Speech or Debate in either House, members shall not be questioned in any other Place," the latter referring for all intents and purposes to a courtroom.  There have been nicks in the armor of this through the years, specifically Hutchinson v. Proxmire in 1979 where Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) was sued for defamation, and the case went forward because Proxmire made statements against Mr. Hutchinson outside of his congressional role (the case was settled out of court), but largely it has remained intact.  I note this because had Mace made these claims in, say, an interview on Fox News it is almost certain that she would be opening herself up for a lawsuit from these four men...doing it in Congress probably means she can't be punished by anyone other than her fellow members of Congress.

Secondly, this is really disturbing behavior from anyone, but especially from someone with as much influence over US policy as Mace.  I am going to point out that this is my opinion (Mace seems to be weirdly good at finding things people say about her on the internet, and I want to be clear this is just my read on the situation, and will throw in this is just alleged for that reason), but she seems to be genuinely going through a public breakdown.  Her behavior is erratic, frequently feeling like she is lying for attention, and that she seems to be going through some sort of mental health issue in real-time in front of the nation.  I don't condone what she's done in the past few months, particularly her bigoted attacks on transgender people, but there is obviously something wrong here.  Mace posted on social media in 2023 that she had two sisters and a brother whom she is close with...I genuinely (no sarcasm whatsoever) hope that one of them is trying to help her because this is someone who needs help.

But it is also a testament to the modern Republican Party that this is happening without any sort of public reckoning.  Twenty years ago, if someone did what Mace has done the past few weeks, they would've been asked to resign from Congress from pretty much all sides.  Rep. Joe Wilson yelled "you lie" during a State of the Union address and it was a major headline for months...that wouldn't even survive an hour-long news cycle today.  Mace feels different to me because it feels (in my opinion) like a call for help from someone who is struggling & trying to get people to notice any way that she can, but against figures like Donald Trump, Byron Donalds, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, & Lauren Boebert, it's hard to tell.  The modern media infrastructure rewards people with more headlines if they say cruel, dangerous, or wacky things, and the modern Republican Party's base loves this, seemingly gloating at how this insane, bizarre behavior is "owning the libs."  Some have said that Mace's posturing is simply her trying to get a leg-up in next year's gubernatorial and Senate races in South Carolina, and maybe that's truly the case.  We are officially in a world where it's not apparent if a sitting member of Congress is having a mental breakdown or if she's just trying to act crazy to help her in a primary...because for Republicans in 2025, these things look so similar it's hard to tell the difference.