Part of: 2026 Governor Campaign
'Absolutely... was not invited': House Majority Leader Steve Scalise came to Nancy Mace's own Lowcountry to lift her replacement, and Mace was left off the list
In mid-August 2026, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise swung through South Carolina to boost Jenny Costa Honeycutt, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the 1st Congressional District seat Nancy Mace is vacating. Scalise appeared at a Charleston event in the heart of Mace's own district, alongside Honeycutt and Rep. Mike Haridopolos. Nancy Mace, still the sitting congresswoman for that district, was nowhere in sight. Asked whether Mace was part of it, a source in Honeycutt's campaign said she was 'Absolutely... not invited.'
Maceopedia ·
The second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House came to Nancy Mace's own Lowcountry this month. He came to lift the woman running to take her seat. And Mace, still the sitting congresswoman for the district he was standing in, was not there.
According to a source in that would-be successor's own campaign, that was no accident. Asked whether Mace was part of the event, the source's answer was blunt: she was "Absolutely... not invited."
What happened
During his mid-August 2026 South Carolina swing, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) stopped in Charleston, the heart of South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, for what his hosts billed as "a special event." At his side were Jenny Costa Honeycutt, the Charleston County councilwoman and Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Mace's seat, and Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL).
The person who announced it was Honeycutt herself, in a public post on her campaign page:
"I was honored to welcome House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Congressman Mike Haridopolos to Charleston for a special event and then join them with more than 1,500 patriots for Rep. Sheri Biggs' Salute to Liberty..."
That second stop, Rep. Sheri Biggs' annual "Salute to Liberty," was in Anderson, in the Upstate, on Monday, August 17, 2026, and drew a marquee conservative lineup: Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, and state Attorney General Alan Wilson. But the piece that matters for Mace is the first one, the Charleston leg, in her district, with the candidate replacing her.
Nancy Mace does not appear anywhere in Honeycutt's account of the day. She is not pictured, not thanked, not mentioned. The campaign's own photos of the swing, the posed welcome shot at the top of this page and the reception scenes below, are all of Honeycutt and her guests. Mace is in none of them.
Honeycutt (right) greets guests at the Charleston reception, in a historic gilded interior. From her campaign's public Facebook post. Source: Jenny Costa Honeycutt for Congress, Facebook.
The "fantastic breakfast" Honeycutt thanked her hosts for, in a historic Charleston interior. From the same Facebook post, which named former Ambassador David Wilkins among the guests. Guest identifications are the campaign's; the photos are reproduced here as artifacts of the public post.
Mace's absence, and why it lands
There is a long-standing, if informal, courtesy among members of Congress: when you travel into a colleague's district, you let them know you are coming. It is the kind of professional heads-up that costs nothing and signals respect. Whether that courtesy was extended to Mace here is the question, and the Honeycutt camp's answer, that she was "absolutely not invited," suggests the outgoing congresswoman was simply written out of an event in her own backyard.
It is worth being precise about what is, and is not, unusual. Party leadership campaigning for its own nominee in an open-seat race is ordinary politics; Scalise turning out for the Trump-endorsed candidate is exactly what a majority leader does. What makes this notable is who was frozen out: not a rival from another party, but the sitting Republican who still holds the seat, and the pointed word choice, "absolutely," from the successor's own side.
The freeze-out did not come from nowhere. The record behind it is public, and it runs in a straight line:
- 2023, the Scalise feud. When House Republicans nominated Scalise for Speaker after Kevin McCarthy's ouster, Mace was one of the members who publicly refused to back him, telling CNN she "cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference." Scalise withdrew his bid a day later. (See our dispatch: "Mace refuses to back Scalise for Speaker".)
- 2026, the governor's flameout. Rather than defend her House seat, Mace left it to run for governor, and lost badly, finishing near the bottom of the Republican field. On election night, CNN's John King literally could not find her on the results board and placed her "at the bottom of the pack." (See our dispatch: "CNN can't find Mace... 'at the bottom of the pack'".)
- 2026, the endorsement. President Trump endorsed Honeycutt, not a Mace ally, in the primary to replace her. Honeycutt won the GOP runoff and now faces Democrat Nancy Lacore in November.
So when House leadership finally rolled into the Lowcountry, it came for the newcomer taking Mace's job, not for the incumbent who spent years at war with that same leadership and then walked away from the seat to chase a promotion the voters denied her.
This is what political isolation looks like in real time: a sitting member of Congress, still in office through January, watching the House Majority Leader campaign in her own district for her replacement, and being told, in one word, that she was "absolutely" not welcome.
Mace has not publicly addressed the Charleston event or her absence from it. Neither Scalise's nor Honeycutt's office has said whether Mace was notified that leadership would be in her district.
Sources & related coverage
- Jenny Costa Honeycutt for Congress, public Facebook post, facebook.com/.../posts/1496731948930374 (the announcement quoted above and the source of the event photos on this page).
- Congresswoman Sheri Biggs' "Salute to Liberty," Anderson, SC, Aug. 17, 2026, guest lineup incl. Scalise, Jordan, Meadows, Wilson: sheribiggs.com/salutetoliberty · Eventbrite listing · FOX Carolina.
- Trump endorses Honeycutt in SC-01: ABC News 4 · Fox News.
- Mace finishes near the bottom of the governor's primary: The Daily Beast.
- Mace's 2023 refusal to back Scalise for Speaker: Mediaite.
The "absolutely... was not invited" characterization is attributed to a source in Jenny Costa Honeycutt's campaign. It reflects that source's account of Mace's absence from the Charleston event. Mace has not commented.
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