Which votes by Nancy Mace drove backlash within South Carolina in 2023?
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Executive summary
Nancy Mace’s October 2023 vote to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was the primary congressional decision that generated significant backlash inside South Carolina, setting off criticism from fellow Republicans, discussion of expulsion from a GOP moderates’ group and becoming a focal point for primary challengers [1] [2] [3]. Reporting provided does not identify other specific 2023 votes by Mace that provoked similar statewide ire, and where the record is silent that limitation is noted [4] [5].
1. The single vote that ignited the firestorm
On Oct. 3–4, 2023, Rep. Nancy Mace joined seven other Republicans and a majority of House Democrats to support a motion that ultimately ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, making her the only South Carolina Republican to vote for his removal — a decision that immediately drew sharp criticism from McCarthy allies and GOP leaders back home [2] [1].
2. Immediate backlash from party leaders and caucus peers
Mace’s vote set her apart from South Carolina’s other five House Republicans, prompted reports that the roughly 40-member Republican Governance Group of moderates was considering expelling her, and drew ire from McCarthy allies who saw the move as a breach of party unity and trust [1]. That intra-party anger became a recurring theme in subsequent coverage of her political standing [3].
3. How Mace framed the vote — a reform argument, not personal animus
Mace publicly framed her decision as a vote against the status quo and “chaos” in how Congress operates, saying she was voting against “95 percent” of her party to push the House back toward delivering results — a defense repeated in contemporaneous press statements and interviews [2]. That rationale has been reported alongside, and in tension with, the criticism she received from Republican ranks [2] [1].
4. Political consequences inside South Carolina: primary pressure and challengers
The McCarthy vote became a line of attack in intra-party politics: press accounts link the action to anger within the state GOP, have connected it to threats of primary challenges and framed it as one element among accusations of flip‑flopping that opponents used in 2024 primary season coverage [3]. Reporting shows it mattered both to party operatives weighing support and to potential primary rivals positioning themselves to the right of Mace [3].
5. Broader narrative and alternative readings in the press
Some outlets and analysts portrayed Mace as a contrarian who occasionally breaks with GOP orthodoxy — voting to oust McCarthy being the most visible example in 2023 — while others framed her behavior as political calculation or a liability for GOP unity; both readings appear in the coverage of the episode [6] [3]. The sources also note other controversies and accusations of inconsistency that feed into perceptions of Mace, but they do not attribute those to specific 2023 votes beyond the McCarthy removal [6] [3].
6. Limits of the record in the provided reporting
The assembled reporting consistently identifies the McCarthy ouster vote as the controversy that produced internal GOP backlash in South Carolina in 2023 [1] [2] [3]; the sources do not document other discrete floor votes from 2023 that provoked comparable statewide backlash, and therefore further claims about additional 2023 votes causing similar uproar are not supported by the materials provided [4] [5].
7. Bottom line
For 2023, the decisive vote that generated substantial backlash within South Carolina was Mace’s decision to vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker — a move that isolated her from most state Republicans, drew institutional rebuke within GOP circles, and helped fuel primary-level tensions back home, even as she defended the vote as necessary to fix congressional dysfunction [2] [1] [3].