Rep. Nancy Mace’s campaign for South Carolina governor suffered an embarrassing stumble last week when she canceled a planned speech in Myrtle Beach after just eight people arrived, undercutting her claim that she is leading the Republican field.
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Mace, who announced her gubernatorial bid on August 4 with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and declared herself a “proud transphobe,” had advertised that more than 100 people would attend a Moms for Liberty event at Forward Church on Thursday. But at the scheduled start time, rows of empty chairs greeted her. Only eight attendees were present, not including reporters and security, according to My Horry News.
Instead of taking the stage, Mace and her staff slipped into a back room. A press aide later told reporters that the speech was off. The Charleston Republican answered media questions outside the sanctuary before meeting briefly with those who did show up.
The flop came just weeks after Mace launched her run on the parade ground of The Citadel, where she became the first woman to graduate from the military college’s Corps of Cadets. At that event, she promised to “ban pronouns in the classroom” and cut off public funding to schools and colleges she accused of promoting “gender ideology,” The Advocate reported. She also leaned into Trump-style messaging, pledging to punish prosecutors and sheriffs she deems too lenient and to defund colleges “that can’t define what a woman is.”
Days before she announced her candidacy, Mace called herself a “proud transphobe” on X, formerly Twitter.
Mace insists she remains the frontrunner. Her campaign released polling last week showing her at 25 percent support, ahead of Attorney General Alan Wilson and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, though more than a third of Republican voters were undecided. She said she texted the results to President Donald Trump, who reposted them on his social media platform Truth Social, according to My Horry News.
“The bellwether that Horry County brings is, ‘Where are Trump voters? Where are they leaning?” Mace told reporters after the canceled speech. “Trump voters are two-thirds of the state, and we’re winning Trump voters by double digits, almost 20 points,” she said, according to My Horry News.
But the optics of an empty room added to a string of awkward campaign moments. Earlier this month, Mace berated a reporter at a town hall after being fact-checked on her opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act. She also faced backlash after boasting that she likes to unwind by watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Mace, who has branded herself as “Trump in heels,” is one of five Republicans vying to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Nancy Mace scraps South Carolina campaign stop after nobody showed up to see the ‘proud transphobe'
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