Nancy Mace made her position on hate crime legislation clear when launching her South Carolina gubernatorial campaign telling The State Newspaper’s Joe Bustos: “I would support any laws that put bad people in jail.” Mace noted South Carolina is “one of the few states that doesn’t have” a hate crimes bill and that she “would support,” passage of such legislation.
On the SCGOP debate stage in Charleston this week Mace took a diametrically opposed stance claiming “every single crime is literally a hate crime,” before adding there is “no such thing as a hate crime.”
Mace took one stance while legislation was moving through the S.C. House in 2025, and another to GOP voters while on the debate stage.
A hate crimes bill (H.3620) that aims to punish people differently based on the motive of their crime has repeatedly cleared the South Carolina House with bipartisan support only to stall the Senate, leaving the Palmetto State as one of only two in the nation, along with Wyoming, without a statewide hate crimes statute.
While Mace was quick to claim there is no such thing as a hate crime on the debate stage this week she, in no uncertain terms, declared a 2025 mob attack on a Presbyterian student a hate crime last year.
“We need to call this what it is: A HATE CRIME!,” Mace wrote on X.
Her debate stage reversal wasn’t a one-off slip. As H.3620 moved through the House, Mace repeatedly signaled support. At the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s “Washington Night” event she was unambiguous: “Yes. Put me in on it.”
This is hardly Mace’s first policy flip-flop. It’s just her most recent.
She can’t help it, she’s a member of the Political Ruling Class.
While all good leaders change stances as the environment they operate in develops. Poll-driven flip-flopping is the opposite of leadership. It is telling people what you think they want to hear to put yourself in a position of power. This is the essence of the Political Ruling Class and why politicians who sound great on the campaign trail continue to fail us once in office.
South Carolina has the opportunity to elect a proven executive to fix the state like he’s fixed multiple businesses over the course of decades, creating hundreds of jobs for South Carolinians in the process. Rom Reddy’s success hasn’t come from triangulating to whatever the people in the room want to hear, but from saying what he believes to be true, regardless of whether it is the most popular thing to say.
Unlike politics, business rewards those who acknowledge harsh truths. Reddy’s ability to recognize and address even uncomfortable topics are what made him a successful businessman, and are what will make him a transformative governor.
It’s time for something different.
Header Image Attribution: Gage Skidmore