Rep. Nancy Mace is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate seat left open by Lindsey Graham’s sudden death, setting up a fast-moving Republican contest in South Carolina less than four months before voters choose the next senator.
Two people familiar with Mace’s thinking said the South Carolina Republican is “strongly considering” entering the race. One person described her mood as “YOLO,” short for “you only live once.”
Graham died late Saturday after what his office called a “brief and sudden illness.” His death leaves Gov. Henry McMaster with the power to appoint an interim senator to serve the rest of Graham’s term until Jan. 3.
But the seat is also on the ballot this year, which means Republicans must choose a new nominee in an Aug. 11 special election. The winner is expected to face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews, a doctor, in November.
Mace’s team plans to put a poll into the field on Monday to test her chances, one person familiar with the plan said.
The race would not be Mace’s first attempt at the seat. She challenged Graham in the 2014 Republican primary and finished fifth. She later won election to the South Carolina state legislature in 2018 and entered Congress in 2020.
Her political profile has shifted since then. Mace began her House career as a Republican critical of Donald Trump, but later became a vocal Trump supporter and social conservative.
She is also coming off a failed run for South Carolina governor, where she again finished fifth in the Republican primary. State Attorney General Alan Wilson won that nomination.
The Senate contest now forces South Carolina Republicans into a compressed decision after the death of a senator who spent decades at the center of Washington’s fights over defense, foreign policy and the direction of the Republican Party.
