WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Nancy MaceSouth Carolina Republicans’ primary victory on Tuesday was powered by strong performances in vote-rich Charleston County, as well as in two key counties it lost in its 2022 primaries, according to an Associated Press analysis of early voting results.
Mace’s reelection fight has captured the attention of national Republican leaders, in part because of her role in ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2023.
Here’s a look at how the AP decided Mace would avoid a runoff and win her party’s nomination for another term in Congress:
US House, South Carolina 1st District (R)
CANDIDATES: Mace, Catherine Templeton, William Young
WINNER: Mace
CALLED AT: 8:40 PM ET
POLL CLOSING TIME: 7:00 PM ET
ABOUT THE RACE: Mace is running for a third term in this district in the state’s Lowcountry along the Atlantic coast near Charleston. In 2023, she was one of eight Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who broke with the party in the vote to impeach McCarthy. Since then, the former chairman has thrown the weight of his political operation and fundraising prowess against the defectors and has backed their main challengers, including Templeton, who previously served as director of the state labor department under then-Gov. Nikki Haley. Templeton’s supporters included former Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of the nearby 2nd Congressional District. Mace received the support of former President Donald Trump and current Chairman Mike Johnson.
WHY AP CALLED THE RACE: Mace took an early lead after polls closed among votes cast before Election Day, which are typically the first votes counted. In particular, she held significant leads in her home county of Berkeley, as well as in Dorchester and Jasper counties, all of which she lost in her 2022 primary, and in Charleston County, which was her best-performing area two years ago.
As vote counting continued, Mace maintained her leads in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester, while Templeton took the lead in Jasper, the smallest jurisdiction in the district, by fewer than 900 votes in the 2022 primary. Mace’s share of the vote in Berkeley and Dorchester performed more than 10 percentage points better than her 2022 primary vote share in those counties.
The last province to report results was Beaufort. Initial results there had Mace ahead of Templeton, but with less than 50% of the vote, slightly behind the pace of her 2022 primary showing.
At the time the AP declared her the winner, Mace’s share of the districtwide vote was about 58%, with just under a third of the estimated votes counted, putting her beyond the risk of falling below 50% to dive and force a second round. By comparison, she won her 2022 primary with 53% of the vote. Mace was ahead of Templeton in both pre-election votes and votes cast on Election Day. She had a larger lead among votes cast on Election Day, which would only help maintain or increase her lead as more votes are counted on Election Day.
Templeton had about 31% of the vote when the AP called the race. With Young having siphoned off about 14% of the vote, Templeton should have defeated Mace among the votes yet to be tallied by about 15 percentage points, an unrealistic goal given her vote share.
