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SUMMERVILLE, SC – Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina says she is confident she will not become the first incumbent to be eliminated by a major rival with the backing of former President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to win by double digits,” Mace predicted in an interview with Fox News. “That’s what it all looks like.”
Mace, the first-year representative in the first congressional district of South Carolina, a key seat of change, faces a major challenge from Katie Arrington, a former Trump-backed state lawmaker who is nearly 17 months away from the House. Blanca remains the most popular and influential politician. to the GOP.
“I feel cautiously optimistic. Of course, the only poll that matters is Election Day,” Mace warned in a campaign interview Sunday with former South Carolina ambassador and former governor Nikki Haley.
Former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley heads a campaign event for Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in Summerville, South Carolina, June 12, 2022 (Fox News)
But then he said “we have overwhelming support … we’re growing in the end here.”
Mace was one of the first supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. And she was not one of the ten House Republicans who voted to oust the then president nearly a year and a half ago to fuel the deadly assault on the Capitol. of the United States on January 6, 2021 by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who sought to disrupt Congress ’certification of now-President Biden’s 2020 election victory. But Mace publicly said Trump’s rhetoric that led to the Capitol assault “put all our lives at risk.”
NANCY MACE’S TRUMP OBJECTION COMBINES SOUTHERN CAROLINA’S REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTION
And last October, Mace was the only Republican in South Carolina to join Congress Democrats in the vote to keep Trump’s former White House aide, Steve Bannon, in contempt of Congress for challenge a subpoena issued by the select committee of the House investigating the riots at the Capitol.
Trump backed Arrington as he launched a major challenge in February, praising Arrington and choking Mace at a rally in South Carolina in March. An Arrington television ad uses a Trump clip of the demonstration accusing Mace of “being a terrible person” and “having no idea what he’s doing.” And last Tuesday he targeted Mace again in a tele-rally for Arrington.
Arrington told Fox News that Trump is “the heart of the Republican Party right now. It represents the hope that there will be a better tomorrow … we in this district want someone to represent the three core values. We believe in faith, the family, and freedom ”.
“And that’s why Donald Trump endorsed me, and that’s why this district will support me at the polls on June 14,” he predicted.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH KATIE ARRINGTON’S INTERVIEW WITH DIGITAL FOX
Arrington was interviewed as she and a couple of dozen volunteers gathered at her home in Summerville, South Carolina, called on voters to seek support in the final hours of the primary campaign.
The first congressional district, which includes much of the coast of South Carolina, including the fast-growing suburbs surrounding the city of Charleston, was represented for much of the past decade by former Republican Gov. Mark Sanford. , who was a vocal critic of Trump.
Arrington, backed by Trump, challenged and defeated Sanford in the 2018 GOP primary. But he lost the general election by a razor-sharp edge to Democrat Joe Cunningham, during a very tough election cycle for the GOP. Two years later, in 2020, Mace narrowly overtook Cunningham when the GOP turned its seat from blue to red.
“My opponent is the one who lost his seat to a Democrat for the first time in 40 years in 2018,” Mace told Fox News.
LOOK: NANCY MACE SPEAKS WITH DIGITAL FOX
Speaking to supporters of Halls Chophouse in Summerville, he stressed that “to regain a majority in this country goes through swing districts, swing districts as the first district in Congress. If we have a Republican majority in November to reverse what Joe Biden has done in our country in a year and a half, we have to win this district ”.
“And that means we have to nominate someone who knows how to win and I’m the only woman in this race in this ballot, who knows how to win the first district of Congress,” the headline said as she struck out at Arrington.
Alongside and presenting Mace was Haley, who won the election and re-election as governor of South Carolina before serving as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. But Haley and Trump are on opposite sides in this popular GOP showdown.
“Nancy Mace is as hard as nails. She’s making circles [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, “Haley told the crowd.” She’s not a push. “
And Haley pointed out that “you may not agree with 100% of everything she does, but she fights for you every day and every time, whether they’re Republicans in the establishment or Republicans in the resistance. “Anyone who thinks you’re putting Nancy in a box is wrong, because after all, she’s the only box that matters in the first district of Congress, and she’s never forgotten who she works for.”
Former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley heads a campaign event for Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in Summerville, South Carolina, June 12, 2022 (Fox News)
Although he has received incoming verbal attacks from the former president for months, Mace does not return fire.
Mace, in a video he recorded in February in front of the Trump Tower in New York City and posted on social media, highlighted his support for the former president. And in an interview with Fox Digital in April, the most critical thing the rep said about Trump was that “I think he’s got bad advice and that’s problematic.”
On Sunday, Mace said, “I’m the only candidate in this race who supports America First’s policies. We have a lot of things we can agree on as Americans, as conservatives, as Republicans. , regardless of the Republican brand you are in our country. I put our country first. “
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST MAIN RESULTS OF 2022 FOX NEWS
Mace and a couple of outside groups who support her have spent more than Arrington on campaign announcements in the weeks leading up to the primaries, and Mace’s ads point to Arrington for national security and taxes.
And Mace promoted his Conservative credentials while attacking Arrington’s, arguing that “I have a great history as a Conservative, I have almost a perfect Conservative report sheet with all Conservative groups. It was my opponent who scored a 30 when I was a state legislator, and the last time I checked it was a reprehensible note.
Arrington responded, accusing Mace of “not being a conservative. That’s why I’m running. He turned his back on us in the district. He turned his back on Donald J. Trump. And that’s why I’m running in this district for a true conservative. “Someone who will defend the values that working Americans, the forgotten people, care about us.”
Republican Congresswoman Katie Arrington, who is the main challenge for Rep. )
The most recent public opinion poll of the race indicated Mace by a single digit, but internal surveys of the Mace campaign suggest that it leads by two digits and above the 50% needed to avoid a second round of elections at the end of June.
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Asked how she could close the gap, Arrington pointed to a group of volunteers right behind her, phone benches to make sure supporters got to the polls.
“These guys, basically,” Arrington said. “Inside the house I have about 30 volunteers right now. This crowd has been out here. This campaign is about the people. We the people. It’s totally a grassroots campaign. I mean, I have people there scoring right now. I ‘ “I’ve been dialing most of the day. We’ve been out, knocking on the door.”
Paul Steinhauser is a New Hampshire-based political journalist.