Nancy Mace Releases 2026 Governor’s Polling

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by WILL FOLKS

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South Carolina first district congresswoman Nancy Mace sought to reassert her position in the Palmetto State’s 2026 governor’s race this week – releasing polling which showed her at the top of the pack in the race to replace outgoing status quo governor Henry McMaster.

Mace, 48, of Daniel Island, S.C., released a survey on her campaign website on Tuesday afternoon (January 13, 2026) purporting to show her “steadily leading” the GOP field. According to Mace’s survey, she is backed by 23% of likely GOP primary voters compared to 19% for fourth-term attorney general Alan Wilson, 14% for lieutenant governor Pamela Evette and 11% for fifth district congressman Ralph Norman.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of primary voters were undecided, according to the poll.

“Her opponents have money and titles, but they don’t have momentum,” Mace spokeswoman Piper Gifford said in a release touting the results. “They’ve spent years in office and millions of dollars, and they’re still stuck in neutral. Nancy Mace is the only one in this race who can build a winning coalition, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The survey released by Mace was conducted by Stratus Intelligence, which bills itself as “a next-generation analytics and polling platform designed to decode public opinion, uncover actionable insights, and power strategic decisions in real time.”

“We don’t run polls for headlines,” the company boasts on its website, although headlines are doubtless what Mace was hoping to generate when she released its results – especially in light of the perception that her standing in this contest has slipped.

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Mace entered the 2026 campaign as the clear frontrunner, however critical missteps last fall – and a nasty ongoing court saga related to her messy breakup from Charleston, S.C. businessman Patrick Bryant – have blunted her momentum.

Mace’s negatives have surged as a result, with her own internal polling acknowledging that 44% of South Carolina GOP primary voters currently view her unfavorably – more than double the negative perception attached to any other candidate in the race.

Mace’s pollsters charitably referred to this dynamic as evidence of her being “a somewhat polarizing public figure.”

Somewhat?

The counter-argument to these sky-high negatives, according to Mace’s campaign, is that she commands the “strongest voter intensity” among the announced candidates.

“Mace is the only candidate in the field with double-digit voter enthusiasm, a key indicator of which supporters will actually show up on election day,” her campaign release noted. “Meanwhile, support for all others appears extremely soft.”

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The most recent independent polling in the race – released six weeks ago by Atlanta, Georgia-based Wick – detailed dramatically different results for the flame-throwing congresswoman. According to that survey, Wilson led the field with the support of 22.2% of GOP respondents – ahead of both Evette (15.7%) and Norman (12%). Mace was backed by just 10.5% of respondents in that poll.

According to a polling memo released by Mace’s campaign, Stratus surveyed 700 likely GOP voters across the Palmetto State between January 7-9, 2026 – using a mix of text-to-web and live operator calls. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.7%.

Mace’s release of the poll also comes as the latest campaign finance reports showed her trailing Norman, Wilson and Evette in available resources for the upcoming stretch run of the campaign. According to her release, though, money isn’t everything – as evidenced by Evette’s current positioning in the race.

“Evette has burned through $2 million just to hang on to third place,” Gifford said in a statement.

The release added that “Wilson and Evette are stalling despite significant advantages and significant sums of money spent either through their campaign committees or Super PACs.”

Partisan primary elections in South Carolina are scheduled for June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate wins a majority of votes on the first ballot – which is a likelihood in this election – a head-to-head runoff 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 since 1998 – and haven’t won a statewide election since 2006. That means the GOP nominee in this race 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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