Nancy Mace’s Latest D.C. Award Raises Eyebrows

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by WILL FOLKS

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South Carolina congresswoman and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Nancy Mace has once again raised eyebrows after having recently received an award from an agriculture group led by a controversial lobbyist.

Earlier this month, Mace was honored as ‘Legislator of the Year‘ by a competitive markets group which purports to advocate for America’s family farmers and ranchers.

Mace was praised by Marty Irby – board secretary for the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) – for “going against the grain” and supporting several of his organization’s top legislative priorities. Chief among them? Mace’s opposition to the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression” – or EATS act. According to Irby’s coalition, this legislation would “strip states and localities of their regulatory authority, all in the name of agricultural trade regulation.”

“Industrial agribusiness interests and multinational conglomerates have turned far too many of our hard-working farmers into modern-day indentured servants and we’re amidst an uprising never seen before,” Irby noted in presenting Mace with her award.

According to Irby, Mace has been a leader of this uprising – pushing back against the sponsors of the EATS act while also fighting against “China’s continuous attempts to take over American agriculture.”

“We refuse to let foreign interests and corporate giants crush America’s farmers,” Mace wrote early Sunday morning (December 14, 2025). “Our farmers work sunrise to sunset to feed this country, and for too long they’ve been undermined by foreign interests and multinational organizations.”

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In addition to his role as secretary at OCM, Irby is president of Competitive Markets Action – the group’s political wing. He is also president of Capitol South, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm – and a previously announced member of Mace’s congressional campaign steering committee.

Irby has described Mace as a “great friend” and the “hardest working woman in the Swamp.”

Until recently, Irby was also a lobbyist for Moms for America – a conservative group which professes to empower “mothers who love God, respect life, revere family and cherish freedom.”

What happened to that gig?

According to a report in The Spectator earlier this year, Irby lost his job with Moms for America after allegedly bringing an adult film star/sex worker named Alexa Payne to an event the group held at Mar-a-lago last November.

Payne is “one of a number of sex workers with whom Irby pals around, according to a perusal of his public social media profiles,” The Spectator report noted.

Numerous posts depicting Irby and Payne have since been deleted, but FITSNews has obtained archived versions and screenshots of several such posts which confirm The Spectator‘s reporting. FITSNews has also obtained business records from Nevada linking Irby and Payne to the formation of a Las Vegas-based company called Sexagram LLC.

Sexagram LLC was organized on October 31, 2024 and dissolved in January of this year.

Why should anyone care whether Mace is being honored by a lobbyist with a personal and professional affinity for adult film actresses?

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“Upstate evangelicals will care if he’s on her steering committee,” a Republican strategist unaffiliated with any of the 2026 gubernatorial campaigns told FITSNews, referencing the vote-rich, socially conservative northwest corner of the Palmetto State.

“That’s where Mace needs to gain ground,” the strategist added.

Another Palmetto politico suggested the revelation was relevant because of Mace’s alleged personal history.

“She hangs out with a lot of porn stars,” the politico noted, referencing allegations previously raised by Mace-hater Eric Bowman, a Sullivans Island businessman accused by the congresswoman of being a “sexual predator” in her famous “scorched earth” speech before the U.S. House on February 10, 2025.

Bowman has been arrested twice in the aftermath of Mace’s speech – once for harassment and once for domestic violence (the latter charge coming after FITSNews exclusively published a video depicting his alleged involvement in an assault).

Reached for comment late Monday (December 15, 2025), Mace’s congressional office referred to our inquiry about Irby as a “weird question.”

“Nancy Mace is top 2% in Congress for bills – cost of living, illegal immigration, jobs, taxes – and she’s helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars for roads and bridges,” a Mace spokesperson told us. “We don’t polygraph handshakes. This award recognized her policy work, not someone else’s personal matters of which we have no knowledge of.”

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Mace’s spokesperson then pivoted to one of the congresswoman’s most effective lines of attack against S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – one of her rivals in the race for governor of South Carolina in 2026 – seeming to suggest Wilson’s supporters were behind the criticism of her relationship with Irby.

“What we do have knowledge of? 93% of pedophile cases were dropped in one SC county, and zero pedophile trials by our AG last year,” the spokesperson continued. “Maybe ask him what’s up with that.”

Wilson’s campaign fired back immediately.

“Instead of daydreaming conspiracy theories about Alan Wilson, the Congresswoman should apologize to the TSA agents and airport law enforcement for berating them, calling them f*cking incompetent, and lying about them for weeks on end,” Wilson spokeswoman Claire Brady said. “She seems to be on a downward spiral, and I hope she gets the help she needs.”

After entering the 2026 South Carolina governor’s race as the frontrunner in early August, Mace’s stock has plummeted in last few months – most notably due to fallout from her interaction with law enforcement at the Charleston International Airport (CHS) in late October.

Per incident reports first obtained by FITSNews, Mace was accused of profanely belligerent and demeaning behavior in her interactions towards officers of the Charleston Regional Aviation Authority (CRAA) during an incident that reportedly took place on the morning of October 30, 2025.

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Recent surveys have also shown Mace with sky-high disapproval ratings among GOP primary voters – prompting some political pundits to declare her once high-flying candidacy kaput.

Seasoned operatives dispute that contention, however, cautioning against “counting Mace out.”

“Her ability to spot and take advantage of issues GOP voters care about is unparalleled,” a GOP consultant unaffiliated with any 2026 gubernatorial candidate told us. “She’s better at doing those things than anyone else in the race.”

The consultant added Mace still has “a lot of time” to rehabilitate herself – and is expected to have the resources to do so.

“She can spend money down the road to soften those negatives,” the consultant said, noting Mace has effectively built her name identification “without spending a dime.”

In addition to Mace and Wilson, lieutenant governor Pamela Evette, fifth district congressman Ralph Norman and state senator Josh Kimbrell are all campaigning for governor. Candidates will formally file for statewide office between March 15-30, 2026, with partisan primary elections scheduled for Tuesday, June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first ballot, a head-to-head runoff election between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026). The GOP primary is the race to watch in South Carolina, as Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial election or a U.S. Senate race since 1998 – and haven’t won a statewide election since 2006.

In other words, the GOP nominee in both of these races is all but assured of prevailing in the general election next November.

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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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