'I Don't Know That I'll Ever Be OK With Myself'
Kruse followed Mace for months producing a sweeping narrative profile examining her origin story, political rise, trauma disclosure, and erratic recent behavior, concluding with her own admission she may never feel whole. The Daily Beast ran a companion piece the same day highlighting the office's bizarre decor, dog beds, crumbled biscuits, a Trump cardboard cutout wearing a 'MACE' hat, and a profanity-filled whiteboard.
Michael Kruse ·
"I don't know that I'll ever be OK with myself.", Nancy Mace, to Politico's Michael Kruse
Politico Magazine's Michael Kruse followed Mace for months to produce one of the most extensive journalistic profiles of her political career. Published in late February 2026, as her gubernatorial campaign was taking shape, the piece traced her origin story, her public disclosure of surviving rape, her rise through South Carolina politics, and the cascade of controversies that marked her recent years in Congress.
Where most profiles gathered reaction quotes, Kruse obtained something rarer, Mace's own unguarded admission about her psychological state. In describing the cumulative weight of trauma, public scrutiny, and personal conflict, she told Kruse:
"There's no end of the story where I'm whole"
And of what keeps her moving politically:
"It's probably the glue that's keeping me together"
The profile ran on the same day The Daily Beast published a companion piece by Leigh Kimmins detailing the decor of Mace's Capitol office, described as featuring thick blackout curtains, dog beds and food on the floor, a Trump cardboard cutout wearing a "MACE" hat, and a whiteboard covered in phrases including "Go girl" and assorted profanities. The juxtaposition of the introspective Politico interview and the Daily Beast's bizarre-office dispatch deepened a public narrative that critics described as instability and that would follow Mace through her governor's race.
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