This coming Tuesday is primary day in South Carolina. There are two races worth watching, both on the Republicans side. MAGAts are trying to replace mainstream conservative William Timmons with neo-fascist state Rep Adam Morgan in the 4th district (Greenville and Spartanburg counties). Once Trump endorsed Timmons, Morgan’s chances diminished rapidly, although he’s been endorsed by Gaetz and a bunch of other extremists: Ralph Norman (R-SC), Bob Good (R-VA), Scott Perry (R-PA), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Mary Miller (R-IL), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Josh Brecheen (R-OK) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA). Timmons has raised 1,028,771 to Morgan’s $576,444 and independent expenditures have favored Timmons over Morgan— $1.9 million to $just over $300,000. This race isn’t really about much other than Morgan’s lust for power.
The other big race is in the 1st district (Charleston) which could have been very interesting had Democrat-in-charge James Clyburn not interfered in the gerrymandering process to make the district less of a swing seat and much harder for any Democrat to win. The incumbent Nancy Mace seems to have lost her mind in a mad dash to compete with Marjorie Traitor Greene for airtime. Few people like her or trust her and she wound up voting with the Gaetz 8 against McCarthy and now McCarthy is helping finance a primary challenge against her— and helping spread the dirt on her across every media platform… another’s plenty to spread.
Mace and Gaetz seem to have been stealing taxpayer money by over-billing personal expenses, especially ugly since both are wealthy, spoiled brats. When Mace was in DC, staying in her $1.6 million townhouse, she was charging for cost of living reimbursements she wasn’t entitled to. Her here today, gone tomorrow staffers, who all hate her, blew the whistle on her.
The Washington Post reported that Mace, “expensed a total of $27,817 in 2023, an average of more than $2,300 a month, according to [congressional] data released as of Tuesday.” She cheated on his bills by close to $20,000 for the year.
She was already having a hard time before that news broke, basically courtesy of McCarthy, who’s out for revenge and spending big buck on the race through shady dark money SuperPACs against her. Although she spent $1.6 million compared to her opponent, Catherine Templeton’s $400,000, over $3.5 million in independent expenditures against her and another $1.7 bolstering Templeton have been made it into a real toss-up.
Trump, who lost the district in the presidential primary to Nikki Haley, endorsed Mace. Newt Gingrich and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson have endorsed Templeton. Mace got into a heated argument with Wilson about it on the House floor earlier this week. As for policy, both candidates are MAGA jerks, so on that level it makes not a jot of difference.
Mace, Republican to whatever core she still has, likes nothing more than to play the victim and exploit her tawdry grievances. This morning, Natalie Andrews reported she “says she is fighting a lonely battle… while also grappling with personal and professional turmoil... ‘I owe Washington nothing,’ said Mace in a recent interview, sitting on a velvet couch in her well-appointed townhome. ‘They left me out to dry, and I’m going to be stronger for it.’” Shunned by most of her colleagues, who don’t want to be associated with the crazy, she claims she’s “a caucus of one.”
Andrews tried making sense out of the incoherent, “idiosyncratic,” random record of a mixed-up, shook up, values-free politician trying to carve out a niche for herself and get on TV, while being dumped by her fiancé and losing a steady stream of staffers who all have horrible things to say about her. Kevin McCarthy suggested she see a psychiatrist: “I just hope she gets the help to straighten out her life.”
“Polls show her ahead in the race,” wrote Andrews, “but the three-way competition will make it difficult for any candidate to get the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. Race watchers are expecting an expensive sprint to a June 25 matchup between Mace and Templeton, seen as the top opponent. She has been under pressure before. In the last cycle, she successfully fought off a strong GOP challenger after Mace criticized Trump because his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. She said the riot had ‘wiped out’ Trump’s legacy. Trump called Mace ‘terrible’ and a letdown… She backed Trump in the South Carolina primary over Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor who supported Mace against a Trump-backed challenger in 2022. Mace has praised Trump for his immigration and economic policy.”
Republican group Winning for Women, which began the election cycle supporting Mace and has worked with McCarthy in the past, jumped over to Templeton. Executive Director Danielle Barrow called Templeton “the only consistent conservative in this race.”
Mace countered that the group’s switch “is just another desperate attempt to try to control another member of Congress.”
What Mace paints as political independence, opponents call erratic.
“She’s pretty vulgar, she’s pretty unstable,” said Templeton, calling Mace a flip-flopper on China, Trump and abortion policy. “We’ve watched her long enough to know that she just yells louder and louder,” said Templeton. “It’s conduct unbecoming of a congresswoman.”
Templeton said almost 40% of her donors had previously donated to Mace. She said she was motivated to get into the race last fall after Mace voted to oust McCarthy.
Mace has accused Templeton of inflating her résumé and not being a wise steward of taxpayer money when she worked in government.
Redistricting has made the once tossup district more solidly red, and the winner of the primary is expected to win the general election in November.
Well, there's always Mark Burns, for entertainment value, if nothing else. SC-3.
https://www.markburns.org/