Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) speaks during a hearing with the House Oversight and Accountability committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 11, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (File/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace heads into November with a significant lead in the money race as she seeks a third term representing the coastal 1st District.
Comparing just their campaign accounts, Mace’s challenger, Democrat Michael Moore, came close to matching her fundraising.
Mace’s campaign committee collected just over $206,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30, while Moore’s campaign raised just over $196,000, according to federal ethics filings posted Tuesday.
But Mace also counts donations to two associated committees outside her campaign to tout a total haul of more than $632,000 in the third quarter.
“This quarter’s fundraising results highlight the strong momentum for Congresswoman Mace’s re-election and her commitment to putting the Lowcountry first,” Sydney Long, spokesperson for the Mace campaign, said in a statement.
Because of the rules around Mace’s particular kind of political action committee, she can’t actually use all of the money in that account toward her re-election. Long declined to comment on that.
“Simply put, the numbers my opponent shared today are inflated,” Moore said in a statement, referring to Mace’s total fundraising across three committees. “Nancy Mace is, yet again, not being honest with voters as she continues to be the face of the do-nothing Congress.”
However, Mace’s cash advantage remains sizeable, even when comparing only campaign accounts.
The congresswoman had about $685,000 available to spend when the quarter ended Sept. 30, while Moore had about $112,000. That’s after her campaign spent about $430,000 in the quarter, more than double Moore’s spending.
That’s significant because Mace already has the incumbent advantage of name recognition. Challengers generally need to spend money just so voters know who they are.
Mace rarely acknowledges her opponent, and there’s been no public debate between the two.
But in a fundraising appeal last Friday on X, formerly Twitter, she wrote (still without naming her opponent): “The left is CRUSHING me with Dark Money!”
According to federal election filings, no outside groups have spent money to support or oppose Moore so far.
This spring Mace faced a well-funded Republican primary challenge from Catherine Templeton, including millions in outside money spent to oppose Mace’s re-election. Mace has also received almost $1 million in support from outside groups.
Part of the funding for the primary contest was from allies of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who Mace helped oust from his leadership position a year ago.
Earlier this year, the 1st Congressional was considered the only district in the state with any potential to flip, according to the Cook Political Report. But the nonpartisan political analysis publication now considers it a “solid Republican” district with a 7-percentage-point advantage for the GOP.
Still, that’s the smallest lead for the incumbent party among South Carolina’s seven U.S. House districts.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s only Democrat in Congress, enjoys a 14-point advantage in the 6th District he’s represented since 1992. It stretches from Columbia to Charleston and borders the 1st District.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Legislature’s post-census redrawing of the districts’ lines, which kept the 1st District safer for a Republican.