Mace Shoots Down Talk Of Early Exit From Congress

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is pushing back strongly against claims that she plans to leave Congress before her term ends. In both a statement and a post on X, she called the speculation flatly incorrect and said she has “no intention” of stepping aside early.

Talk of an early departure didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It followed weeks of friction on Capitol Hill, including an interview with The Hill in which Mace said she had “run out of patience a long time ago” over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, as well as the resignation of a top adviser who accused her of disloyalty to President Trump.

On Wednesday evening, The New York Times reported that Mace was considering retiring early due to frustrations with Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership and what she viewed as insufficient respect for women in the House — a move that would jeopardize the GOP’s historically narrow 220-215 majority. The report also said Mace planned to meet with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) next week to discuss following her path and stepping down early.

Mace’s response was blunt. On X, she wrote that “the internet is wild” before asking pointedly, “Now where did I say I was retiring?” She dismissed the rumors as “made-up stories” disconnected from anything she has said or intends to do.

Mace expanded on her criticism, arguing that reporters had latched onto a stray snippet of conversation and turned it into something far larger than it was. She said many Republicans are exasperated that discharge petitions have effectively become the only mechanism for getting bills to move and that there is growing frustration over Congress’ failure to cement Trump-era executive actions into law. She cited recent remarks from Reps. Elise Stefanik and Anna Paulina Luna as evidence of that simmering dissatisfaction. But she insisted on one thing: talk of looming retirements was not true. “Good grief,” she wrote, urging people not to jump to conclusions.

She followed up with another post highlighting her decision to sign a discharge petition to prohibit stock trading by members of Congress. Mace questioned why something she framed as both morally obvious and ethically straightforward required forcing the issue past House leadership. Lawmakers, she said, should not be able to profit from information unavailable to the public, and reforms shouldn’t need extraordinary procedural maneuvers to move forward.

For now, Mace’s 700,000 constituents are unaffected — and she insists nothing is changing.

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