Rep. Nancy Mace wasted no time in using the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to make her some money, and she’s defending her choice by saying that the “establishment” is targeting her.
Ms. Mace, South Carolina Republican, first launched her fundraising pitch on Wednesday as she appeared with Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, the leader of the Republican rebels, on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program.
“I do need help because they’re coming after me,” Ms. Mace said. “They’ve threatened to dry up all my money. I’ve had multiple members, previous to the vote last night, threaten to withhold fund-raising if I took this vote. It’s a huge amount of pressure. They call your staff; they scare them.”
She plugged her campaign website multiple times during the show.
Ms. Mace and Mr. Gaetz are two of the eight Republicans who voted with all House Democrats to oust Mr. McCarthy from his position as speaker on Tuesday.
She cited a lack of trust and not living “up to his word on how the House would operate” on such matters as separate spending bills and legislation regarding abortion rights and gun control, both of which she favors, as her reasons for voting to remove him.
“I came [to Congress] to take difficult votes and do the right thing, regardless of the pressure and regardless of the threats (bc there’s been plenty of both),” she wrote in a statement on the social-media platform X. “Today I’m voting against 95 percent of my party in the hopes of fixing how Congress operates.”
She appeared in a Fox Business Network interview later Wednesday while in the Capitol building, where she once again asked for funds and defended her actions.
“You’re damn right I’m fundraising off of this right now, because the establishment is coming after me for taking a principle stand,” Ms. Mace said. “I am not going to be shamed for doing this. Kevin broke a lot of promises.”
Soliciting funds or other campaign activities in House buildings, rooms or offices is against House ethics, and is mentioned in the manual that says, “they may not be used for the conduct of campaign or political activities.”
Other politicians have been reprimanded for similar actions in the past. Ms. Mace’s office confirmed to The Washington Times that she acknowledges that her words violated House rules and that she self-reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee.
Ms. Mace also defended her fund-raising on CNN Wednesday to host Kaitlan Collins, echoing what she said on Fox.
“The establishment is coming after me,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of threats from different groups and different members that they will withhold fundraising no matter what, and I do need help from the people.”
When confronted with a clip of her from January calling Mr. Gaetz a “fraud” for delaying votes for Mr. McCarthy’s speaker election and sending out fundraising emails, Ms. Mace defended herself by saying that “I have not been fundraising off of this every stop of the way. I made my decision last night.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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