Amid rumors she’s considering a run for governor back home, South Carolina Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace made her first trip to New Hampshire Friday — the state she said “changed everything for President Trump in 2016” — for the Politics & Eggs forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
“New Hampshire picks presidents — you all did that in ’16 when Trump came through,” Mace said. “We’re first in the south, we take great pride in that as well, but you all led the way in 2016, so it’s a huge honor to be here.”
Mace won her third term representing South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District in 2024 and serves on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Mace, who introduced a resolution in 2024 to prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex,” said she loves being in the Granite State because “this is where real men protect women.”
“I have learned in my fight in Congress that we as women still have a war to wage with the far left, who want men in women’s spaces,” Mace said. “They want men in our locker rooms. They want men showering next to our 12-year-old daughters, and they think that men can get pregnant. And I’m just here to say the biological truth is not that, and I want to also say that I am sleeping much better at night knowing that Donald J. Trump is president because he is protecting women like me.”
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U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., speaks at a Politics and Eggs event as James Brett, president and CEO of the New England Council, listens Friday.
HB 1205, a New Hampshire law also known as the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” was enacted last summer, but a federal judge blocked enforcement after attorneys for the families of Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, two transgender teens, challenged the law.
Mace, 47, has publicly acknowledged she is “seriously considering” a run for governor in 2026. A successful run for governor in South Carolina could be a stepping stone toward a campaign for national office.
Friday’s appearance in the Granite State, home of the first-in-the-nation primary, all but confirmed she’s running.
“Not only do you pick presidents, maybe you could pick the next South Carolina governor too while we’re here today, because we’re going to be announcing our run very shortly — potentially — for that as well,” Mace said.
Mace was first elected to Congress in November 2020, defeating Democrat Joe Cunningham. She won reelection in 2022 and 2024.
Born in Fort Bragg and raised by a retired Army general and retired school teacher, Mace worked as a waitress at a Waffle House after dropping out of high school at age 17.
“Denny’s was a little too high-brow,” Mace said. “I don’t know if you have either of those options up here, but if you do get to a Waffle House, please get your hash browns smothered, covered and chunked.”
Mace graduated magna cum laude from The Citadel, making history as the first female graduate from its Corps of Cadets in 1999. She went on to earn a master’s degree from The University of Georgia in 2004.
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New Hampshire state Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, left, talks with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., after Mace spoke at a Politics and Eggs event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College Friday afternoon.
Asked about Trump’s recent tussles with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump called a “numbskull” recently for failing to act on the White House’s demand for a large reduction in borrowing costs, Mace said she wishes lawmakers “had more control over the Federal Reserve.”
“As many of you know we are printing money, over $4 trillion a year, and when you look at the way that Jerome Powell has operated, I do have concerns about his priorities,” Mace said. “I think that President Trump, in my mind, will not make any rash decisions. I think that he would as a business guy, very successful businessman, have a bench of individuals. There’s more than one person who can fulfill that position in the mission.”
On Friday night, Mace was scheduled to attend an event benefiting New Hampshire Senate Republicans and the Committee to Elect New Hampshire House Republicans at the Hilton DoubleTree in Manchester.