South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace vowed to emerge victorious in her bid for reelection despite the fact that former President Donald Trump has endorsed her opponent in the Republican primary, The State has reported.
"I’m gonna win without him," said Mace, who blamed Trump for the January 6 attack on the Capitol in the aftermath of the event, telling CNN that his "entire legacy was wiped out" by what took place that day.
Trump endorsed GOP candidate Katie Arrington earlier this month, calling her "a true Republican" and harshly criticized Mace, saying that she is "an absolutely terrible candidate" who has been "disloyal" to the GOP, according to The Hill.
When Mace ran for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District two years ago, she won the Republican primary without Trump’s backing, earning his endorsement only after voters overwhelmingly chose her to be the GOP nominee to challenge Democrat Joe Cunningham, who in 2018 had become the first Democrat in nearly 40 years to win the district, The State reported.
A day after Trump endorsed Arrington, Mace made a video standing in front of Trump Tower in New York City, saying "I remember in 2015 when President Trump announced his run, I was one of his earliest supporters. I actually worked for the campaign in 2016. I worked at seven different states across the country to help get him elected. I supported him again in 2020 because of policies I believed in."
She added that "if you want to lose this seat once again in the midterm election cycle to Democrats, then my opponent is more than qualified to do just that."
Asked about her video by The State, Mace said that "If you call it groveling, I would say you didn’t watch the video. I think it’s important to know what I said, but also what I didn’t say - present tense versus past tense."
The newspaper pointed out that in the video, Mace said she currently backs the former president’s policies, while adding that her stated support of Trump was in the past tense in the video.