Mace Blames Trump Break Over Epstein Files for Gubernatorial Loss

The South Carolina congresswoman says her public split with the president on the Epstein Files Transparency Act may have cost her the governor's race — and possibly her entire political future.

Rep. Nancy Mace lost her bid for the South Carolina governorship.
Mace broke with President Trump over the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
She told reporters the split 'may have ended my political career.'
The Epstein Files Transparency Act has become a fault line inside the Republican Party.
Mace has not announced whether she will seek another office.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said the vote that cost her Donald Trump's support may also have cost her the South Carolina statehouse. Speaking after her failed gubernatorial bid, Mace told reporters her backing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act — a measure Trump opposed — could have been the decisive factor: “It may have ended my political career.”

Mace had been a reliable Trump ally before the break. The Epstein files legislation, aimed at compelling the release of federal documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, drew a narrow faction of Republican members willing to defy the White House on the issue.

The South Carolina governor's race was already competitive. How much the Trump split moved actual Republican primary voters, versus how much Mace believes it did, is not established by any public polling released to date.

What is established: she ran, she lost, and the bill she crossed the president to support has not yet passed the Senate.