"I'm leaving Congress because I can't get shit done": Mace explains exit in her own words
Rep. Nancy Mace told Tara Palmeri on Aug. 30, 2026 that she is leaving Congress because she 'can't get shit done,' citing her inability to pass women's safety legislation as the defining frustration of her tenure.
Rep. Nancy Mace told journalist Tara Palmeri on August 30, 2026 that she is leaving Congress because she "can't get shit done." The statement came in the middle of an extended discussion of Mace's frustration with the legislative process and her inability to advance bills protecting women and children through a Republican-controlled House.
The quote flowed directly from a larger passage in which Mace described the same passion for women's safety legislation that drove her into office as the source of her growing frustration. Palmeri had been pressing her on what seemed to drive her, and Mace pivoted to why that drive was no longer enough reason to stay.
Captioned clip from the Tara Palmeri Show, August 30, 2026. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
The exchange
The full verbatim passage, from the Tara Palmeri Show, August 30, 2026:
Mace: ...and I think it's a motivator why I just, I just go off the rails sometimes and people say it, oh, she's crazy. It's no, we have to go so far in this direction because you guys have taken us, being nice has gotten us off the rails. I'm just bringing back common sense. And so, it certainly drives my passion. It drives what I feel I've been called to do while I've been in Congress. And it's also why I'm leaving Congress, because I can't get shit done. You know, I, 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.
Palmeri: So, Congresswoman Mace, would you call yourself a feminist?
The passage connects directly to the earlier part of the interview about her experience being assaulted at 16 and her motivation to legislate on behalf of other survivors. The frustration she describes is framed as structural, not personal.
Context
Mace lost the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary in June 2026 and is not seeking re-election to South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. She has served two terms since winning election in 2020.
Her stated reasoning for leaving combines the failure of the legislative process with a sense that her driving purpose, advocacy for women and children, could not be fulfilled within Congress's constraints. Immediately before the passage above, she had been describing how "women our own sex out there advocating for that kind of thing drives me even more insane" and that frustration was "a motivator why I just go off the rails sometimes."
Later in the same interview, Palmeri confirmed the scale of the problem: "You introduced 90 bills this Congress alone." Mace's response: "Uh... zero" of them became law.
Watch
The full Tara Palmeri Show interview is available on YouTube. The statement about leaving Congress begins at approximately 5:57:
Sources
- Tara Palmeri Show, "MACE ON BEING MACE," YouTube, August 30, 2026 (primary source; statement at 5:57)
- The Tara Palmeri Show: tarapalmeri.com
Read next
September 8, 2026 · DispatchNancy 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.'
September 18, 2026 · Dispatch"I Do Politics Well": Mace's Own Words, Fact-Checked
In an interview with X personality Dominique Lucre, Nancy Mace claimed she 'does politics well,' that her kids are 'grown,' and that she has no regrets going it alone. Every major claim bounces off the public record.
September 10, 2026 · Dispatch"I gave up my political career for that discharge petition. And I would do it all over again."
Opening her Aug. 30, 2026 interview with Tara Palmeri, Rep. Nancy Mace said she gave up her political career for the Epstein victims discharge petition and would do it again. She then confirmed that Trump 'ultimately punished' her for it: 'Oh, 100%.'
September 10, 2026 · Dispatch"I just go off the rails sometimes": Mace responds to critics who call her 'crazy'
Rep. Nancy Mace, in an Aug. 30, 2026 interview with Tara Palmeri, acknowledged that she sometimes 'goes off the rails' but pushed back on critics who call her 'crazy,' saying: 'Being nice has gotten us off the rails. I'm just bringing back common sense.'
September 11, 2026 · DispatchWhat Nancy Mace Believes About Rape
She built a political identity on the word. Then, in one unguarded interview with journalist Tara Palmeri, something different came out: she called a factual question about Trump's accusers 'rape shaming,' could not name a single one of the 20-plus women, and said she would not recommend women come forward. Her own floor speech describes a blackout after two vodka sodas at a property owned by the man she accuses of rape, and a question her children asked that she never answered.
September 11, 2026 · DispatchMace Accused Tara Palmeri of 'Rape Shaming.' She Then Said the Only Trump Accuser She Could Name Was a 'Porn Star' Who 'Wasn't Accusing Him of Rape.'
In an uncut episode published September 6, 2026 from her interview with Mace, journalist Tara Palmeri replayed two exchanges, both of which also appear in the longer interview published August 30, 2026. In the first, Mace called Palmeri's question about how she reconciles supporting Trump with women's advocacy 'rape shaming.' In the second, asked whether she believes the women who accused Trump of rape, Mace named only a 'porn star' she believed was not accusing him of rape, apparently not knowing that E. Jean Carroll specifically accused Trump of rape and a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.