Mace wants to ban members living with staff. Sources Say says former aides see a complication.
Juliegrace Brufke ·
Juliegrace Brufke reported for Sources Say News that Rep. Nancy Mace introduced resolutions to bar House members from sexual relationships with employees and from living with employees, while former Mace staffers described earlier campaign and congressional arrangements they said complicate the line. Mace's office rejected the premise, saying the suggestion that she lived with staff, directed employees to stay at her home, or maintained a crash pad for federal employees is false.
Sources Say News published Juliegrace Brufke's August 17, 2026 report on Rep. Nancy Mace's proposed House rules against members living with staff, and on former Mace aides who told the outlet her own history made the proposed line harder to draw.
The article says Mace introduced two resolutions in July 2026, one to bar House members from sexual relationships with employees and another to bar members from living with employees, with a married-couple exception. Brufke quoted Mace's public framing that "a boss and a roommate should never be the same person" and that "no staffer should ever be coming home at night to the person who signs their paycheck."
Sources Say then reported two staff-history claims, both attributed to people who worked for or were close to Mace's operation: first, that during Mace's first campaign a senior campaign aide lived in an apartment above the garage at Mace's Daniel Island home; second, that in spring 2022 a senior aide traveling weekly from the district to Washington stayed at Mace's townhouse rather than expensing a hotel. The former aide told Sources Say the D.C. setup involved basement sleeping quarters separated by a curtain and described it as "way too much contact with the boss for a work week."
Mace's office rejected the article's premise. In the statement quoted by Sources Say, a spokesperson said the suggestion that Mace lived with staff, directed employees to stay at her home, or maintained a "crash pad" for federal employees was false. The office said Mace "did not and has never lived with her staff" and pointed to public records showing examples of hotel lodging for staff travel to Washington.
The piece also included pushback from one source who described the basement as a separate private English-basement setup, and from a proponent of the bill who distinguished temporary platonic stays from the improper power dynamics the bill was intended to target.
Sources & related coverage
- Sources Say News, Juliegrace Brufke, "SCOOP: Mace Wants to Ban Living With Staff. Her Own History Complicates the Line." (August 17, 2026)
- Fox News, Elizabeth Elkind, "Nancy Mace pushes bill banning lawmakers from sex with staff" (July 30, 2026)