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Staff Turnover in Nancy Mace's Office

Nancy Mace's congressional and campaign operations have shown a recurring pattern of rapid staff departures: her entire nine-member Washington office turned over within three months in late 2023, a senior campaign consultant resigned publicly in December 2025, and four staff members, including Mace herself, declined to cooperate with the House Ethics Committee's 2025-2026 reimbursement investigation. Mace disputes former staffers' accounts of her management, and has in turn accused some ex-aides of sabotage; those competing accounts are contested and unadjudicated.

Overview

Rep. Nancy Mace's Washington and campaign operations have been the subject of repeated national reporting on an unusually high rate of staff departures, running from a near-total turnover of her congressional office in late 2023 and early 2024, through a senior campaign resignation in late 2025, to a subpoena recommendation tied to former staff who declined to cooperate with the 2025-2026 House Ethics Committee investigation. Mace has disputed former staffers' characterizations of her management style and has, in turn, publicly accused some ex-aides of sabotaging her office; those competing accounts remain contested and unadjudicated.

The 2023-24 D.C. office exodus

By February 5, 2024, The Daily Beast reported that every staffer in Mace's Washington office as of November 1, 2023, nine in total, had left within roughly three months, eight by voluntary resignation and one, chief of staff Dan Hanlon, by firing. Those who departed included the deputy chief of staff, legislative director, communications director, financial adviser, staff assistant, two legislative assistants, and military legislative assistant. Casey Burgat, a George Washington University professor who studies congressional staffing, called the rate "ridiculously high" and said he "would be shocked if you found any other Representative or senator with even close to that high of a turnover in such a short amount of time."

The Daily Beast's report triggered same-day companion coverage. Salon quoted a former aide who called Mace "delusional as a boss" and described a requirement to respond to her within eight minutes, holidays included, along with an allegation that Mace used Capitol Police to intimidate staff. The New Republic ran its own same-day piece under the headline "Nancy Mace Is So Toxic That Her Entire Staff Ditched Her." When Hanlon returned to the office on December 4, 2023 to collect his belongings, Capitol Police had already been called in over an unsubstantiated report of a threat; no charges were filed. See Capitol Police in Mace's office during Dan Hanlon's exit.

The turnover story predated and outlasted that single news cycle. Mediaite reported in November 2023, citing documents obtained by The Daily Beast, that Mace's own staff handbook required her communications team to book her on national television one to three times a day and on local television at least six times a week, and allocated roughly $500,000, about a third of her office budget, to "marketing." Months later, The Washington Post reported (May 10, 2024) that Mace had accused former staff of hacking her phone, mismanaging her budget, spying on her children, and trying to destroy office devices; the ex-aides the Post interviewed "vehemently disputed" her account. Nearly two years later, New York Magazine/Intelligencer published a further multi-source profile in which former staffers alleged Mace had them run late-night liquor deliveries, clean her Airbnb rentals, upvote Reddit posts ranking her among the "hottest women in Congress," and operate burner social-media accounts; Mace denied the claims and called the piece a "hit piece."

The Gabrielle Lipsky hire

On January 8, 2024, a year to the day after Mace called George Santos's "entire resume in life manufactured" on CBS, Fox News reported that Mace had hired Santos's former communications director, Gabrielle Lipsky, into the same role in her own office. The hire landed in the middle of the D.C. office exodus described above; a former Mace aide told reporters it was "a big reason why she's only able to hire former George Santos staffers right now." See the dispatch Mace hires George Santos's communications director and Gabrielle Lipsky.

The December 2025 McCubbin resignation

Turnover extended to Mace's 2025-2026 campaign for South Carolina governor. On December 1, 2025, senior consultant Austin McCubbin resigned and publicly urged voters to "scratch her from [the] list," according to The Post and Courier. McCubbin said Mace's campaign had become financially and politically aligned with Sen. Rand Paul's network, calling it a proxy for Paul's 2028 presidential ambitions. Mace's campaign disputed his account, saying he had not raised funds and had rarely appeared for campaign work; McCubbin said he had worked unpaid since August and considered a promised success bonus unlawfully withheld. See Austin McCubbin.

The June 2026 post-mortems

After Mace finished fifth in the June 9, 2026 gubernatorial primary, failing to carry even her own home county, both journalism and commentary connected the loss to years of staff turmoil. The Washington Post reported that Mace's office "frequently shed staff," with her entire nine-member team turning over in a three-month span after her vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the paper, "The only thing I hope is she gets the help she needs." Former communications director Will Hampson said, "I don't think Nancy Mace has ever seen a bridge in her life that she hasn't burned down." South Carolina operative Justin Evans said "it's just her moral compass was completely missing." A circulating Facebook essay by Mike Broemmel pointed to "the cumulative effect of chaos" and concluded that "the common denominator in the turmoil was Nancy Mace herself," an opinion piece, not reporting, whose recycled former-staff accounts Mace disputes. Mace herself has attributed her defeat to her vote to release the Epstein files rather than to staff turnover: "I voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that."

The Ethics Committee angle

Staff turnover intersects with the House Ethics Committee's ongoing reimbursement investigation. The OCC's Report on Review No. 25-5681, released publicly on March 2, 2026, states (¶12, ¶34) that Mace, former chief of staff Dan Hanlon, and former staffers Lorie Khatod and Richard Chalkey "refused to cooperate with the OCC's review," and recommended (¶35) that the Ethics Committee issue subpoenas to all four. A former Mace staffer, identified only as Witness 1, testified that "the Congresswoman and the Chief of Staff" set the instruction to claim the maximum reimbursement every month. See the dispatch Ethics Committee releases OCC report, the ethics reimbursement incident hub, and the House Ethics Investigation.

People

  • Dan Hanlon, chief of staff (2021 until fired December 2023)
  • Lorie Khatod, chief of staff (November 2023 to October 2024)
  • Sydney Long, communications director (May 2025 to February 2026) and simultaneous campaign spokeswoman
  • Jamie Finch, senior adviser (November 2024 to present)
  • John Mason Long, 2024 congressional campaign manager (February to May 2024)
  • Austin McCubbin, 2022 congressional campaign manager and 2025 gubernatorial-campaign consultant, resigned December 2025
  • Wesley Donehue, former political strategist and consultant
  • Gabrielle Lipsky, communications director (January 2024, late 2024)
  • Doug Stafford, 2022 congressional campaign spokesman
  • Richard Chalkey, deputy chief of staff (2021 to December 2023)

Sources

See also

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