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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina first district congresswoman Nancy Mace welcomed California governor Gavin Newsom to the Palmetto State this week by issuing a debate challenge to the aspiring Democrat presidential contender.
“Don’t California my South Carolina,” Mace wrote on X in response to news of Newsom’s visit, which she later referred to as “tone-deaf political theater.”
In a release from her office on Tuesday (July 8, 2025), Mace invited Newsom to participate in a debate with her – and to bring liberal California congressman Ro Khanna along for moral support.
“Governor, welcome to South Carolina,” Mace said. “Let’s debate. I’ll even let you bring Ro Khanna to protect you in the audience.”
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“If Governor Newsom wants to bring California politics to South Carolina, he should be ready to defend his record, face to face,” Mace continued. “We don’t need lectures from someone who’s presided over a state defined by out-of-control wildfires, skyrocketing crime, crumbling public schools, and riots in the streets. South Carolinians believe in law and order. If Governor Newsom wants a real policy debate, I’ll gladly meet him on stage.”
No word yet on whether Newsom – one of the frontrunners for the 2028 Democrat presidential nomination – will accept Mace’s invitation. However, Mace’s congressional office referred to the challenge as “a chance to draw a sharp contrast between California socialism and the America First agenda.”
Mace wasn’t the only elected official in South Carolina mixing it up with Newsom as the San Francisco native prepared to embark on a two-day tour of eight rural Palmetto State counties. S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson also popped Newsom on his California record – drawing a response from the liberal luminary.
Wilson and Mace are the two early frontrunners for governor of South Carolina as the next statewide GOP primary election – set for June 9, 2026 – approaches.
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RELATED | GAVIN NEWSOM HEADED TO SOUTH CAROLINA
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“Radical Democrat Gavin Newsom is bringing his California chaos tour to South Carolina this week,” Wilson wrote on X. “We’ve seen what his leadership looks like: sky-high crime, gas prices, taxes, and homelessness. South Carolina rejects that kind of future.”
Newsom fired back at Wilson, telling the Palmetto State’s top prosecutor “your homicide rate is literally DOUBLE California’s.”
“Gavin, over 800,000 Californians have escaped your chaos since 2022,” Wilson responded.
“Gavin Newsom turned California into a case study in government overreach and liberal failure,” Wilson continued. “We don’t need Newsom’s twisted version of America in the Palmetto State. If he wants to test his national message here, he’ll be met by a united conservative front that knows exactly what’s at stake.”
South Carolina’s “conservative front” is hardly conservative, though. And hardly united…
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.@GavinNewsom turned California into a case study in government overreach and liberal failure. From authoritarian lockdowns to sky-high taxes and rising crime, his policies crushed small businesses, undermined law enforcement, and prioritized political theater over the people he… pic.twitter.com/f84mK3eC5W
— Alan Wilson (@AGAlanWilson) July 8, 2025
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According to the S.C. Democratic Party (SCDP), Newsom is coming to the Palmetto State to “connect directly with communities that have too often been overlooked by Republicans in power” and to “meet folks in towns that have been hollowed out by decades of Republican control.”
At least that’s the “party line.”
More accurately, Newsom is coming to South Carolina to connect directly with Democrat powerbrokers in a pivotal early-voting state – one which clinched the 2020 primary for former president Joe Biden and anointed his reelection bid last February.
As I noted in previewing Newsom’s visit, “(his) policies are unlikely to win him wide-ranging support in most corners of the Palmetto State,” although “the case that ‘Republican’ rule is failing far too many South Carolinians is an easy one to make.”
We shall see how well Newsom tip-toes that line… and how effectively Mace and Wilson are able to knock him off balance as he attempts to do so.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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13 comments
She’s really becoming a mouthy cunt.
This is NOT the Southern Hospitality many of us were taught. Mace and Wilson do NOT represent me and neither will ever get my vote. Mace, especially, is a huge embarrassment along the lines of MTG and Boebert.
What a laugh. The last thing Mace wants is anyone to debate her. I am guessing Newsom knows there is little to be gained from debating a complete lunatic.
You gotta admit that guy has good hair. “Hollywood Hair.”
HAHAHA! I’m not a fan but the dude wipes the floor with everyone in FoxMAGAworld who tries to debate him.
“Don’t California my South Carolina,”
Yes, let’s keep SC taking funds from the giver blue states like California.
Instead of having an X war with a Governor from another state maybe he could do the job he has been elected to do. Scott Spivey case and Colucci case need his attention now. He is too busy campaigning
Wilson and Mace are giving Newsom the level of attention he hoped for in South Carolina.
Please tell me why anyone running for Governor of South Carolina is sparring with a potential future Democratic candidate for President visiting South Carolina. This is not only confusing but also becoming increasingly bizarre each day. Keep the Governor’s race in the Governor’s Race Lane unless Mace has her eye on the Presidency or is planning on supporting AOC. Alan, please don’t get in a see who can bash the Democrats the worse “Race with Mace”
Contest. That’s not a good look.
Plus, I bet the stage isn’t the only place she’d gladly meet him.
Squishy. Aptly named. How about not referring to a female in such a fashion? You can take issue with what someone says without being a vulgar prole. Ms. Mace is a Mother, a daughter, AND a United States Representative of this State. Ridiculous. You most likely are a “sakerlina” fan.
I guess the green new deal is OK so long as it is in her district?
“Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) reportedly requested the Trump administration to unfreeze Biden-era climate funding in support of a car manufacturing plant in her southeastern district, which covers much of the Palmetto State’s lowcountry region.
In a Tuesday letter obtained by The Washington Post, Mace asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to release the funds for a Mercedes-Benz plant’s refashioning to produce electric vehicles, stating the move would bring roughly 800 jobs to her district.
The staunch Trump ally argued in the letter addressed to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, per The Post, that the grant would help “ensure America-made options remain available in the commercial vehicle sector.” The project sought nearly $300,000 from the federal government.
The report comes after Mace backed the House-passed spending and tax bill, which includes significant cuts to green energy tax credits. Many Republicans in the Senate, which is currently working through their own version of the legislation, voiced concern that renewable energy cuts may be too vast.
President Trump, in his broad efforts to curb government spending and root out fraud and abuse, nixed the South Carolina grant program when he halted the disbursement of former President Biden’s climate programs earlier this year.
“We strongly support President Trump’s initiative to restore fiscal responsibility within the executive branch, particularly in reducing waste, fraud, and redundancies,” the letter reads, according to The Post. “While we understand and support the necessity of such measures, we believe that federal investments should continue to prioritize projects with sustained economic growth.”
Mace’s office as well as the DOE did not respond to an immediate request for comment on the matter.
As The Post noted, it is difficult to assess how much climate funding Trump has withheld after he signed an executive order on Inauguration Day rescinding funds disbursed through Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).”
She is a clueless trump ball licker
Mace is an effing idiot. Wildfires spawned by the Santa Ana winds in California are as common as hurricanes are in the south.