"Federally Sanctioned Segregation": Mace Moves to Dissolve the Congressional Black Caucus on Her Way Out the Door

"Race-based caucuses are not diversity. They are federally sanctioned segregation."

That is Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), in a written statement to Fox News Digital on July 23, 2026, announcing a House resolution that would direct the Committee on House Administration to dissolve the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

The Congressional Black Caucus was founded in 1971. Mace is leaving Congress in January after losing the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary.

Fox News Politics X post announcing Mace's resolution to abolish the Congressional Black Caucus, July 23, 2026

Fox News Politics on X, July 23, 2026. Source: @foxnewspolitics

What She Said

Mace's full statement to Fox News Digital included three lines:

"Race-based caucuses are not diversity. They are federally sanctioned segregation."

"You do not get to lecture America about inclusion while running an organization which checks your skin color at the door."

"It is time to end taxpayer-funded discrimination in this institution."

Quote card: 'You do not get to lecture America about inclusion while running an organization which checks your skin color at the door.' -- Nancy Mace, July 23, 2026

What the Resolution Would Do

The resolution directs the Committee on House Administration to revoke and block the registration of any Congressional Member Organization or Congressional Staff Organization formed "primarily or substantially" around race, color, ethnicity, or national origin.

If adopted, it would force dissolution of three Democratic-aligned caucuses:

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), founded 1971, 60 members
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC)
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC)

The resolution would also affect Republican-affiliated organizations, including the Black Republican Congressional Staff Association, the GOP Latino Staff Association, and the Republican Asian American Staff Association.

The proposal faces long odds even in the Republican-controlled House. It would require near-universal Democratic opposition plus support from Republicans who currently rely on the same kind of race- and affinity-based staff organizations Mace is targeting.

Fox News article screenshot: 'GOP firebrand moves to dissolve Congressional Black Caucus: Federally sanctioned segregation,' July 23, 2026

Fox News Digital, by Adam Pack, July 23, 2026. Full article

Who She Is Targeting

The Congressional Black Caucus is not a new organization. It is older than most of the people who currently serve alongside Mace in the House.

The CBC traces its origins to January 1969, when 13 newly elected Black members of Congress formed a group called the Democratic Select Committee. It was renamed the Congressional Black Caucus in February 1971 following a motion by Rep. Charles Rangel. Founding members included Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Diggs (D-MI), Ronald Dellums (D-CA), Louis Stokes (D-OH), and eight others.

The organization's founding mission, as stated by its members in 1971: "We are petitioned daily by citizens living hundreds of miles from our districts who look on us as congressmen-at-large for black people and poor people in the United States."

Over its 55 years the CBC has held roughly one-fourth of the votes needed for House majorities. It was instrumental in passing the Affordable Care Act and has secured sustained funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Mace's resolution comes as the CBC is already under attack from a different direction. A Supreme Court ruling in April 2026, Louisiana v. Callais, narrowed the Voting Rights Act's scope and allowed Republican-controlled states to redraw congressional districts previously designed to ensure Black representation. The CBC's own chair, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), responded to that ruling: "Not since Jim Crow have we seen this level of systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters." More than 20 of the caucus's 60 members face potential seat loss from the redrawn maps.

The Responses

The CBC was direct.

"We don't need a lecture about what constitutes federally sanctioned segregation -- least of all from Nancy Mace."

Congressional Black Caucus X post responding to Mace, July 23, 2026

Congressional Black Caucus @TheBlackCaucus on X, July 23, 2026.

The chairs of the Tri-Caucus -- CBC Chair Yvette Clarke, CAPAC Chair Grace Meng, and CHC Chair Adriano Espaillat -- joined House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar in a joint statement. The statement described the resolution as "racist and a shameless attempt to silence the voices of minorities." It called the proposal part of Mace's "cheap political stunts" and "the latest distraction from her failed primary and complete inability to deliver for her constituents."

The statement also said directly that Mace "has repeatedly made racist and bigoted comments about minority communities over the course of her tenure in Congress."

Jeffries delivered the summary judgment:

"These caucuses existed long before Nancy Mace arrived in Congress, and will remain long after she fades into irrelevancy."

Quote card: 'These caucuses existed long before Nancy Mace arrived in Congress, and will remain long after she fades into irrelevancy.' -- Hakeem Jeffries, July 23, 2026

"Time to Kiss Your Little Clubs Goodbye"

Two hours after the Fox News report, Mace posted the resolution text herself on X:

"Equity and inclusion for all. 😉

In Congress, we work for ALL of our constituents, not just those who look like us. Time to kiss your little clubs goodbye."

Equity and inclusion for all. 😉

Here is the text to our resolution, banning Congressional Caucuses and Congressional Staff Organizations formed on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, or national origin, who admit or refuse to admit members based on race, or who advocate for the perceived interests of members of a particular racial group over others.

In Congress, we work for ALL of our constituents, not just those who look like us. Time to kiss your little clubs goodbye.
Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) July 23, 2026

The two attached images contain the full resolution text. The caucuses she is describing as "little clubs" include the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been in Congress since 1971.

Quote card: "Time to kiss your little clubs goodbye." -- Rep. Nancy Mace on X, July 23, 2026

The Context: A Lame Duck With a Checklist

Mace lost the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary in June 2026. Her congressional term ends in January 2027. Since the primary loss she has focused her remaining months in the House on a sequence of largely symbolic anti-DEI legislation: restrictions on birthright citizenship, bans on transgender participation in women's sports, and now this.

The resolution she introduced will not pass. Democratic leaders are united against it. Several Republicans whose own staff rely on race-based affinity organizations would face pressure to oppose it. Mace knows it will not pass. She is a lame duck running out a checklist.

What the CBC and the Tri-Caucus called "cheap political stunts" is a fair description of what this is. What it is not -- by any historical, legal, or factual definition -- is segregation. Segregation was the system of state-enforced racial separation that denied Black Americans the right to vote, attend school, eat at a lunch counter, or sit on a bus. The Congressional Black Caucus was formed by the people who helped dismantle it.

Calling the CBC "federally sanctioned segregation" is not an argument. It is an inversion. It takes the language of the civil rights movement and turns it against the institutions the civil rights movement built.

The CBC has been in Congress for 55 years. Mace has been in Congress for six. She leaves in January.