Rep. Mace Gets Defensive With Epstein-Related Post After President Trump Endorses Her Rival

As election season drags on, President Donald Trump continues to wield significant influence over the GOP with his endorsements alone.

His favored candidates have already put up impressive numbers, even against incumbent candidates, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is now facing a Trump-endorsed primary candidate in her gubernatorial bid.

In response to the latest campaign hurdle, Mace posted a statement to social media, as The Hill reported:

“I voted to release the Epstein files. NO REGRETS,” Mace wrote in an early-morning post on social platform X, including a U.S. flag emoji.

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Mace was one of four Republicans who signed a bipartisan discharge petition last year to force a House vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation that compelled the Justice Department to publish millions of documents related to its probe into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

She has routinely ripped the DOJ for how it handled the rollout, criticizing the slow release of files and the heavy redactions contained in them. She also argued in February that “terabytes” of records were still being withheld despite officials’ insisting the review was complete.

The South Carolina Republican acknowledged on Friday that her demand for further transparency “put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line,” but she would not have chosen to do anything differently.

Here’s the full statement she posted to social media:

Congresswoman Nancy Mace issued the following statement to the voters of South Carolina:

“I have enormous respect for President Trump and everything he has done for our country and for South Carolina. That respect is genuine and it is unchanged.

We have a state that’s corrupt. A system that’s broken. And an establishment who wants to stay in the shadows. It’s been that way for the last decade since Pam Evette’s been in office, and with the governor’s son Henry Jr. as her running mate, South Carolina can expect more of the same.

I WILL DRAIN THE SWAMP, not keep the same creatures there.

I’ve stood up against Republicans and Democrats alike. And I would do it all over again and in a heartbeat.

I am the only candidate in this race with a detailed plan to eliminate South Carolina’s state income tax and lower the cost of living for every family. I am the only candidate who took on and took out a sanctuary sheriff in South Carolina. I am the only candidate who supported the largest roads and bridges grant in state history.

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Results are not rhetoric, and my record speaks volumes.

I will not change my positions. I will not abandon my principles. And I will never stop demanding accountability from institutions that have failed South Carolina, and our nation, regardless of the political cost.

Margaret Thatcher once said that if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and would achieve nothing. I did not come into politics to be liked. I came to deliver.

I also know I put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line when I demanded transparency on the Epstein files. I demanded it because you deserved the truth – ALL OF IT – and as a survivor, I had to get justice for these women.

If this is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it.

South Carolina deserves a Governor who answers to her people, not to the establishment, and not to anyone who believes accountability is negotiable.

May God bless the great state of South Carolina.”

— Congresswoman Nancy Mace

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The president’s de facto opposition to Mace’s candidacy fueled some social media discussion in recent days:

There’s nothing on the files important to me. All I see in here is a bunch of whores that had a wild time and they want to get more money off of it. That’s all I have no sympathy for whores and screw Nancy. She’s a Democrat.

— America first (@sahararenee1) May 31, 2026

Mace is a rat.

— Brak Brakley (@BrakleyBrak) May 31, 2026

Oh well Nancy…you can call it anything you want. The fact is he’s over you. I am too, have been since way before the files. So, see ya!

— John Merano (@HardcoreMaga) May 31, 2026

Here’s how Newsweek covered Trump’s endorsement in the race:

President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed Pamela Evette, lieutenant governor of South Carolina, in her battle against U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Mace and a slew of others, ahead of the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

Recent polls have shown Evette in the lead, as others earlier in the year had Mace ahead. Trump has endorsed against Mace in the past, but he backed her reelection in 2024, describing her in part as a “strong conservative voice.”

Taking to Truth Social on Friday evening, Trump said in a lengthy post, in part, “Highly Respected and very popular Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Pam Evette, is an America First Patriot who has been with me from the very beginning. She never wavered, never let me down, and was the only South Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate to Endorse me as soon as I launched my 2024 Presidential Campaign.”

Here’s some additional coverage of the latest developments: