An Independent Public Record

MACEOPEDIA

The Public Record

← Back to Dispatches
Tara Palmeri Show

Nancy Mace introduced 90 bills this Congress. Zero became law.

Rep. Nancy Mace, in an Aug. 30, 2026 interview with Tara Palmeri, acknowledged she introduced 90 bills this Congress and that zero became law. Asked what she actually accomplished without Nancy Mace, she pointed to the 'bully pulpit.'

Nancy Mace introduced 90 bills this Congress. Zero became law.

Rep. Nancy Mace told journalist Tara Palmeri on August 30, 2026 that despite introducing 90 bills during her current Congress, none of them became law. Palmeri then asked what Mace actually accomplished that would not have happened without her. Mace pointed to the "bully pulpit."

The exchange came near the end of a long discussion about Mace's frustrations with the legislative process, including her view that even the most basic protective legislation for women and children could not get a committee markup, let alone a floor vote.

Captioned clip from the Tara Palmeri Show, August 30, 2026. Watch the full interview on YouTube.

The exchange

The full verbatim exchange, from the Tara Palmeri Show, August 30, 2026:

Palmeri: You introduced 90 bills this Congress alone.

Mace: [laughter] Yeah.

Palmeri: How many became, how many became law?

Mace: Uh... zero.

Palmeri: So, what did you actually accomplish that wouldn't have happened without Nancy Mace?

Mace: I think um the bully pulpit, uh you know, bringing the issues to attention. Um that has been I, I think helpful, especially at the state level. What I'm doing at the federal level has sometimes been copied by states at the state level.

The exchange came after Mace had been describing the specific difficulties she faced passing legislation she championed. Earlier in the same conversation, she cited revenge porn legislation as an example of what remained undone: "I still don't think South Carolina has a revenge porn law on its books."

Context

Mace was asked about her legislative record during a conversation about why she decided not to seek re-election. She has been explicit throughout the interview that the inability to pass legislation was a central reason.

In the same conversation she also said: "I've got dozens and dozens of bills relating to women and children and predators that are going after them." She described the process as: "With some of the easiest bills to protect women and kids, we can't even get a markup, a hearing on, let alone a vote on the floor, let alone try to get it through the Senate."

Mace framed her work instead as drawing attention: using the "bully pulpit" to push state legislatures to act even when Congress would not. She cited deep fake legislation and AI bills as areas where states eventually acted on the framework she developed at the federal level.

Mace was first elected to South Carolina's 1st Congressional District in 2020. She served two terms and lost the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary in June 2026.

Watch

The full Tara Palmeri Show interview is available on YouTube. The 90-bills exchange begins at approximately 9:03:

Sources