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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace – one of the frontrunners to become the next governor of the Palmetto State – is getting lit up by a new negative advertisement that highlights her prior beef with U.S. president Donald Trump.
For those unfamiliar with the mercurial relationship between these two elected leaders, it’s undergone plenty of quantum shifts over the years. Mace was one of Trump’s earliest 2016 supporters – working as a top staffer on his inaugural ‘First in the South’ campaign. After January 6, 2021, though, she flip-flopped on Trump… then Trump flip-flopped on her, unsuccessfully opposing her in a GOP primary in 2022 (and calling her “crazy”) only to endorse her two years later.
Mace and Trump have been allies ever since, although she did go up against him on the release of the Epstein Files.
As you can see below, the new advertisement highlights the period of time when the two were at odds with one another…
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????? First district congresswoman @NancyMace is getting BLASTED in the South Carolina governor's race by a newly formed Virginia-based group called 'American Measure.' #Crossroads2026 pic.twitter.com/8XFQ1PXR8R
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) May 5, 2026
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According to our sources, the ad is running for the next four weeks in three major media markets – Columbia, Florence-Myrtle Beach and Augusta, Georgia. A whopping $1.1 million of television time has been purchased for the spot, which is paid for by a secretive Virginia-based group that formed just four months ago.
The Alexandria-based entity – American Measure – was created on February 3, 2026, according to commonwealth records. Per the group’s website, it operates “as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization dedicated to the general welfare, seeking to strengthen democratic institutions, protect civil liberties, and advocate for policies that safeguard American domestic vitality and global leadership.”
It purportedly promotes “civic engagement, critical thinking, and constructive dialogue about the country’s most pressing domestic issues.”
In addition to the South Carolina governor’s race, the group has been active in Alabama – propping up advertisements critical of former state Supreme Court justice Jay Mitchell, who is running for attorney general. In Alabama, however, the group routed its attack ads through a state-level intermediary.
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The race for governor in South Carolina is heating up. Recent polling shows Mace narrowly trailing fifth district congressman Ralph Norman and four-term attorney general Alan Wilson in crowded six-way fight to succeed term-limited, status quo incumbent Henry McMaster.
Also running are lieutenant governor Pamela Evette, Lowcountry multimillionaire Rom Reddy and state senator Josh Kimbrell.
Partisan primary elections in South Carolina are scheduled for June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate claims a majority of votes on the first ballot – which is a likelihood in such a crowded GOP governor’s race – a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026).
For the better part of the past three decades, the GOP gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina has been the equivalent of punching one’s ticket to the governor’s mansion – as no Democrat has won a top-of-the-ticket statewide race since 1998. That streak is unlikely to break in 2026, although we are hearing anecdotally that Democrats are poised for a much better election cycle than many suspect.
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we continue to track the latest developments in this wide open contest…
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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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