South Carolina's Nancy Mace denies report that she wants to leave Congress before end of her term

Joseph Bustos, The State (Columbia, S.C.) on Dec 4, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace denied a report that she is considering retiring from Congress early following in the footsteps of another firebrand who announced she was leaving next month.

Mace was responding to a New York Times report that said she is considering leaving the U.S. House amid frustrations she has with how Speaker Mike Johnson runs the chamber.

“I’m not retiring. I have no interest in retiring,” Mace told South Carolina reporters during a Zoom call Thursday. “Am I absolutely frustrated with Congress? One hundred percent yes. I loathe how slow Congress is. I loathe that serious lawmakers are not taken seriously. I have shared these frustrations with the speaker. In fact, he reached out to me last night, and I conveyed them in a deeply personal, deeply passionate letter that we are legislating by discharge petition.”

Mace, who is running for governor, has signed onto a discharge petition to force a vote on banning members of Congress from trading stocks. A discharge petition also forced a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Members have felt frustrated that legislation in the House hasn’t been moved and efforts to codify executive orders from President Donald Trump haven’t taken place.

Mace confirmed, however, she wants to talk to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who is leaving Congress next month after a falling out with Trump.

“I think she’s a very smart member of Congress, and I want to pick her brain, because I thought she was very effective with the bills she was drafting, (and) how effective she was in machinations and procedures on the floor,” Mace said. “I definitely want to learn, kind of what her thinking is, ... I did say that, but that doesn’t mean I’m retiring that’s just not what was stated on the floor in a partially overheard conversation.”

Despite Mace’s frustration with Johnson, she also said she believes he won’t lose the speakership in the same manor as his predecessor Kevin McCarthy.

Ahead of the vote to remove McCarthy, Mace said he did not keep certain promises he made. She ultimately was one of eight Republicans to join all Democrats to vote remove McCarthy as speaker in 2023.

“I think (Johnson’s) got the votes, and no one is going to oust him a speaker,” Mace said. “I think he’s a great man. He’s a much better speaker than his predecessor, I’ll tell you that. But the frustration that we can’t bring a very basic nonpartisan bill on the floor, to me, is just, it’s obscene. I don’t like it.”