Representative. Nancy Macé of South Carolina won a hotly contested Republican primary on Tuesday, fending off a challenger backed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mace defeated attorney Catherine Templeton in the Charleston-based 1st District, the Associated Press projected, meeting the majority threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Mace led Templeton 57% to 30%, while Navy veteran Bill Young took 13%.
Mace’s role as one of eight House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker of the House in October loomed large in the race. She faced millions of dollars in advertising spending from outside groups aligned with McCarthy, and Templeton, who has received financial support from McCarthy’s leadership PAC, said Mace’s vote was what pushed her to enter the race.
But an endorsement from Donald Trump gave Mace a boost despite his mixed history with Trump. mace supported him ardently in the 2024 presidential primaries, after she called on the Republican Party to distance itself from it following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and after defeating a Trump-backed primary challenger in 2022.
Mace also outperformed Templeton and received support on the airwaves from the conservative Club for Growth Action.
Mace was looking for a decisive victory; she told NBC News over the weekend“I want to win more than ever on Tuesday night because I want to send a message to Washington that voters don’t care about D.C.” His campaign office was adorned with “60-40” signs, signaling his desire for a big margin that avoided a second round.
Templeton, who was then governor. Labor Secretary Nikki Haley rejected McCarthy’s influence in the race.
“No one is paying attention to Kevin McCarthy in the Lowcountry of South Carolina,” Templeton recently told NBC News.
McCarthy’s revenge campaign against Republicans who voted to remove him as speaker of the House will continue this summer. Its affiliated groups have also spent money against Republican Reps. Bob Good of Virginia and Eli Crane of Arizona ahead of their primaries in the coming weeks. And McCarthy’s chief agitator, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, also faces a primary challenger.
Another South Carolina Republican escapes primary
Republican Rep. William Timmons narrowly avoided a primary challenger in South Carolina’s ruby-red 4th District, handing another defeat to hard-line House Republicans who were looking to expel their own colleagues.
Timmons, who Trump supported, won the race against state Rep. Adam Morgan 52% to 48%, according to the AP. Morgan, chairman of the Freedom Caucus in the state House, had the support of some of Timmons’ Republican colleagues in Washington, including Good and Gaetz, who campaigned with him.
Well, Gaetz and other hardliners have supported other primary challengers against House Republicans, but so far the incumbents have prevailed.
“In Washington, I am focused on politics – not headlines, on representing my constituents – not myself, and on working with my colleagues rather than working against them,” Timmons said in a statement. “Now is the time for our party to come together to advance conservative policy and focus our efforts on re-electing Donald Trump in November.”
Timmons decided to have the most coveted GOP primary endorsement in the race. He released a TV advert with Trump speaking directly to the camera and calling Timmons “an America First patriot.”
The race was emblematic of divisions in the GOP conference, with GOP hardliners pushing lawmakers to maintain the conservative line at all costs and others like Timmons working across the aisle to find common ground.
Pointing to his conservative voting record, Timmons recently told NBC News: “It’s not about politics. It’s a question of tactics.”
Timmons looked vulnerable, having narrowly avoided a runoff two years ago against lesser-resourced opponents after having faced accusations of an extramarital affair. Timmons, who has since been divorced, has not publicly confirmed or denied the allegations, and some GOP strategists have suggested they could hurt him among the district’s socially conservative evangelical voters.
Timmons had a financial advantage in the race and help from two outside groups. He also criticized Morgan in the final stretch for supporting an amendment to criminalize abortion, including fines and possible prison time for women who have it. Morgan defended the vote as a solution to a loophole and said she has voted in other cases not to penalize women.
The attack highlighted the shift in abortion policy within the Republican Party, with Timmons arguing that such votes could paint the party as too extremist and threaten Trump’s chances of winning in November.
Elsewhere in South Carolina, pastor Mark Burns and nurse Sheri Biggs are heading into the June 25 Republican primary runoff in the 3rd District in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jeff Duncan.
Burns, who self-financed his campaign, had Trump’s support. Trump too appeared in a TV advertisement to Burns allegedly recorded on the night of April 19 at Trump Tower in New York, the day Trump was in court for his hush money trial.
Big Senate race takes place in Nevada
Nevada, North Dakota and Maine also held primaries on Tuesday, with Trump intervening in many of the key races.
Army veteran Sam Brown won the Republican primary for Senate in Nevadaprojected NBC News, setting up one of the most important races for control of the House against Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen.
Brown, who suffered catastrophic burns in an explosion during his service in Afghanistan, was the establishment favorite in the race against Jeff Gunter, who was Trump’s ambassador to Iceland.
Brown’s candidacy is something of a role reversal from 2022, when he ran unsuccessfully to the right of former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, the establishment’s choice in that Senate race. This time, Brown was supported by Trump, who endorsed him days before the election in a state that normally votes heavily by mail.
In North Dakota, Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong won his party’s primary for governor, making him the clear favorite to succeed Republican Governor Doug Burgum. Armstrong’s victory is yet another victory for Trump, who supported his candidacy against Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. Burgum, a potential Trump running mate, endorsed Miller.
Armstrong will face Democratic state Sen. Merrill Piepkorn in the fall in a state that has not elected a Democratic governor since the 1988 elections.
Armstrong’s candidacy for governor meant he could not run for re-election, creating an open primary for his seat. State Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, backed by Trump and Burgum, won the Republican Party nomination in the state’s general election district, the AP projected.
In Maine’s 2nd District, Trump-backed state Rep. Austin Theriault won the Republican primary, the AP projected. Theriault, a former NASCAR driver, will face Rep. Jared Golden, a top Republican target as one of five Democrats running for re-election in a district Trump carried in 2020.
In addition to Tuesday’s primary contests, voters in Ohio’s 6th District chose a new member of Congress to replace former Republican Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned in January.
Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli won the special election in the district over Democrat Michael Kripchak and will serve out the rest of Johnson’s term, NBC News projected. Once he takes office, Republicans will have 219 members in the House, giving them a little more comfort in the closely divided chamber.
Rulli underperformed compared to previous Republicans in the low-turnout special election, winning 55% of the vote to Kripchak’s 45%. Trump carried the district 64% to 35% in 2020, according to calculations by Kos Daily Elections. And Johnson was re-elected in 2022 by 68% to 32%.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
