Washington — Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, criticized House GOP leaders in an op-ed on Monday for what she called their “restrictive and ineffective” control of the chamber that has yielded few results.
“Here’s a hard truth Republicans don’t want to hear: Nancy Pelosi was a more effective House speaker than any Republican this century,” Mace wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times, with the headline “What’s the Point of Congress?”
The South Carolina Republican said although she agrees with Pelosi on “essentially nothing,” the long-time speaker “understood something we don’t: No majority is permanent.”
Mace, 48, first came to Congress in 2021, making a name for herself as GOP firebrand. She made headlines earlier this year for leading a GOP effort to restrict restroom use in the Capitol after the first transgender person was elected to Congress, and she’s regularly sparred with witnesses while serving on the House Oversight Committee. More recently, she was among a handful of House Republicans to initially support a petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Mace announced in August that she’s running for governor of South Carolina.
Mace said that when she came to Congress, she believed she could “make a difference for my constituents, for South Carolina and for a country I love deeply.” But she said she’s since learned “that the system in the House promotes control by party leaders over accountability and achievement.”
“No one can be held responsible for inaction, so far too little gets done,” Mace said. “The obstacles to achieving almost anything are enough to make any member who came to Washington with noble intentions ask: Why am I even here?”
Mace said if Republicans, with governing control of Washington, fail to “pass legislation that permanently secures the border, addresses the affordability crisis, improves health care and restores law and order, we will lose this majority.”
“And we will deserve it,” she added.
The South Carolina Republican hasn’t shied away from rebuking her party in the past. In 2021, she criticized President Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, suggesting he didn’t have a future in the party, before ultimately backing his 2024 presidential bid. Ahead of the 2022 midterms, she urged her GOP colleagues not to go too far on restricting abortion. And in 2023, Mace was among a group of eight Republicans who voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mace said in her op-ed that Speaker Mike Johnson “is better than his predecessor. But the frustrations of being a rank-and-file House member are compounded as certain individuals or groups remain marginalized within the party, getting little say.”
“Women will never be taken seriously until leadership decides to take us seriously, and I’m no longer holding my breath,” she added.
Mace’s comments come amid criticism from other House Republican women. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, expressed frustration with Johnson last week as she sparred with the speaker over a provision within the annual defense policy bill. And last month, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced that she will resign from Congress in the new year, expressing frustration with her party while pointing to her dramatic break with Mr. Trump.
Mace insisted that Republicans “can do better.”
“We can restore regular order, empower members to legislate and deliver on our promises,” Mace said. “But that will require a fundamental shift, one that prioritizes courage over control. Let us vote. Let the people see. Let the chips fall. That’s democracy.”