"I'm not chasing another title, I'm chasing justice": Nancy Mace rules out the Senate race, and with it, public office

Rep. Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) announced on Monday, July 20, 2026 that she will not run for the seat of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. She made the announcement in a 64-second video posted to her own X account, accompanied by a separate written statement. The two texts are worded differently, and both are reproduced in full below.

With filing for the special election closing at noon on July 28, and with her June 10 announcement that she would not seek re-election to the House, Mace is now set to leave public office when her term ends in January 2027.

Reporting credit: The announcement was covered the same afternoon by Fox Carolina, Newsweek, Fox News, WBTV, the Washington Examiner, and WSLS. Outlets split on which of her two statements they carried, which is why several published accounts of the same announcement do not share a single quotation. Both are hers. Both are below.

The video

I'm not running for the Senate - because I have some unfinished business.
Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) July 20, 2026

Rep. Nancy Mace's announcement video, posted to X on July 20, 2026 at 4:22 p.m. ET. View the original post. Runtime 64 seconds.

Maceopedia short, cut from Rep. Mace's own announcement video of July 20, 2026. Her words, unaltered.

The video is a single unbroken take, shot square at 1080 by 1080, with a "CONGRESSWOMAN NANCY MACE" lower third and a composited Charleston Rainbow Row backdrop. She speaks directly to camera. Burned-in captions run throughout.

The video statement, in full

This is the complete spoken text, transcribed by Maceopedia from the original video file and checked line by line against the burned-in on-screen captions in her own video. The partial quotations published by Fox News, the Washington Examiner and WBTV match this transcription.

"I want to be straight with you. I'm not running for the US Senate, not because I'm backing down from a fight, but because the one I'm already in matters right now.

The laws meant to protect me and other women failed us, and I won't stop until that changes.

So I'm not chasing another title, I'm chasing justice. Justice for me, justice for other women, and justice for every little girl who was told to stay silent. That's where my focus is today, and that's where it's going to stay.

Serving South Carolina has been the honor of my life, and I will continue to voice our values everywhere I can.

I'm even going to shitpost from time to time because someone has to call out the dumbasses. Because if we don't, we as a country will be gone.

I love you. I want to thank you for the thousands of calls and text messages and offers to help in a race like this, and I say God bless you.

Serving you has been the honor of my life, and I will never forget it."

Two notes on the text, both about accuracy rather than substance. The profanity is hers and is spoken plainly in the audio; her own on-screen captions render it as "sh*t post," censored and split into two words, while the Gateway Pundit, the only outlet found to have printed the line at all, rendered it "sh-tpost." Maceopedia reproduces what is audible. Separately, she says a version of "the honor of my life" twice, once about South Carolina near the start and once about "serving you" at the close. That repetition is in the recording, not an artifact of transcription; the on-screen captions carry both.

The written statement

Posted alongside the video, and the version most outlets ran:

"I'm not running for the Senate - because I have some unfinished business. Since I stood on that House floor, I've been fighting for every woman and girl who was told to stay silent. I want justice - and that day is coming. Thank you for all your support, all the calls and texts. You are the BEST. Serving South Carolina is the honor of my LIFE, and I will NEVER forget it."

Fox Carolina and Newsweek both printed this text. It overlaps the video only in theme. The phrases most widely quoted from Monday, "unfinished business" and "chasing justice," come from two different statements released at the same time.

What she is referring to

The litigation half of this announcement, what "the one I'm already in" and "unfinished business" point back to, and the status of the gag order that was in place when she said it, is set out separately in "The one I'm already in".

Mace does not name a case in either statement. The references to "the one I'm already in," to "the laws meant to protect me," and to standing "on that House floor" point to allegations she first made in a February 10, 2025 speech on the floor of the House. Those allegations are contested. The men she named have denied them, no charges have been brought against them arising from that speech, and related civil litigation is ongoing. Maceopedia takes no position on the underlying claims and reproduces her statements here as statements.

The timing

July 11, Sen. Lindsey Graham died at 71.
July 14, Gov. Henry McMaster swore in Graham's younger sister, Darline Graham Nordone, as interim senator.
July 12, Mace told Fox News, "I would be an idiot not to at least look at it."
July 16, an Emerson College poll put her at 10 percent, tied for third.
July 17, President Trump endorsed Nordone for the full term, writing "RUN, DARLINE, RUN!"
July 18, Rep. Ralph Norman entered the race anyway.
July 20, Nordone confirmed to Sean Hannity that she is running: "I've made a decision. I'm in." Hours later, Mace said she is not.
July 21, filing opens. July 28, filing closes. August 11, Republican primary.

Trump world had signaled hostility to a Mace bid before she decided. An official told Axios: "If Mace ends up in a runoff, we'll drop $2 million on her head to keep her out."

The exit

Mace's last statewide test was six weeks ago. She finished fifth of five in the June 9 Republican gubernatorial primary with 57,380 votes, 12.1 percent, and did not reach the runoff. The next day she said she would not seek re-election to the House:

"Headed back to the private sector at the end of this term, as the Founders intended... When I ran in 2020 I said I'd only serve 3 terms and my time is up."

Monday's announcement closes the remaining path. Barring an appointment or a later race, her congressional term ending in January 2027 will end her time in elected office.

A note on a misattributed quote

In the hours after the announcement, several accounts on X, including one belonging to a C-SPAN producer, posted "I'm not chasing another title, I'm chasing justice" as Mace's statement. Because the written statement she posted does not contain that line, it briefly circulated as a fabrication.

It is not. The line is in the video, at the 18-second mark, in her own voice, and it was independently transcribed by three newsrooms. Maceopedia initially flagged it as unverified and has corrected that; the accounts that quoted it were quoting her accurately, from the video rather than the caption.

Sources & related coverage

Rep. Nancy Mace, the announcement video and written statement, X, July 20, 2026, the primary source for this dispatch
Fox Carolina, "Rep. Nancy Mace says she will not enter race for late Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat" (July 20, 2026)
Fox News, "Nancy Mace announces she is not running for Senate seat" (July 20, 2026), which carried the video statement
WBTV, "Rep. Nancy Mace says she will not run for US Senate seat in South Carolina" (July 20, 2026)
Newsweek, on the special election field (July 20, 2026)
WSLS, "Darline Graham says she will run for a full term in Lindsey Graham's Senate seat" (July 20, 2026)
South Carolina Election Commission, U.S. Senate Special Republican Party filing and primary calendar
Related Maceopedia: Filing opens Tuesday and Mace has seven days · Trump endorses Graham's sister · Mace's shifting answer on the Graham seat · Emerson poll puts Mace at 10 percent · "Which version of Nancy Mace will we get?"

This dispatch reproduces Rep. Mace's own public statements of July 20, 2026, verbatim and in full, from a video she posted publicly. It does not characterize the litigation she refers to. Allegations she has made are contested and denied by those she named, and no finding has been made on them.