Nancy Mace (00:00):
... carry Donald Trump to the White House, South Carolina, because we're first in the South. In Horry County, you guys and gals literally bleed red, white, and blue. There's MAGA blood. You guys love Donald Trump. Thank you for delivering Donald Trump, South Carolina, Horry County, thank you. They went after President Trump. They indicted him, they raided his home, they impeached him, and they even shot him, but you know who carried Donald Trump in those tough days? It was God. God carried Donald Trump just like God is going to carry the United States of America with Donald Trump as president, they are going to save our nation. We did that, we did that right here in South Carolina.
(01:05)
Now, the establishment, they're coming after me just as hard as they're coming after Donald Trump, and if they can't find it, I'm going to tell you, they're going to make it up. I thank God every day I got saved about six years ago. All of my stuff's out there. You can find it on the internet, it is there. Sometimes it was me, sometimes that was an AI. Only about half of it's true. That being said, they're coming after me so hard because they are so scared that South Carolina will install an America first governor who will implement Donald Trump's agenda on day one, on day one, because Donald Trump's agenda is law and order, and there's no one better than the PD in Horry County and every county across South Carolina that knows that law and order is missing in our state.
(02:04)
I recently went to Loris. Who's been to Loris? I met with the Spivey family, and as I walked into the room at the Veterans Cafe and Museum tonight, I read a statement from the Attorney General of South Carolina who is refusing to investigate the death and the killing of Scott Spivey. There are tapes. We know that he was chased nine miles down the road, and there are tape recordings about the guy that shot him bragging about how terrified Scott Spivey was before he died. We've seen video, we've seen body cam where was written, handwritten on a note that said, "Act like a victim," a note that was snuck to the shooter, and you can't tell me for a man who was shot 17 times from behind and killed by a bullet in the back, that our Attorney General could not investigate this case. He has refused. Boo, that's right, boo.
(03:17)
We had a solicitor, this is in the Sumter County judicial area two weeks ago, prosecuted one case of DUI. Do you know how many murder cases are in Sumter County today? Over 60. If you roll down two hours down the road south of Charleston when you don't want to spend your money in Myrtle Beach, you come down to Charleston and we take your money, we cash all the checks, two miles down the road, two hours down the road in Charleston County, guess how many murder cases are on the docket and not being prosecuted? Over 350 murder cases and attempted murder over the last seven to eight years. We don't have trials anymore, we don't have juries, and we don't have prosecutions. You know why? Because the system is corrupt.
(04:10)
We're only one of two states in the country that allow our lawyer, legislators to pick the judges in this state, and then we have an attorney general who runs for office, and do you know who funds his political campaigns for office? The lawyers who have cases before the Attorney General and his prosecutors. Then we have solicitors who are supposed to prosecute murder, who are supposed to prosecute child molesters, who are supposed to prosecute rapists, and they're elected. Do you know who funds their campaigns? The lawyers who have cases against the prosecutors.
(04:55)
Now, someone tell me how that smells right. It doesn't, and that's why we have cases like Scott Spivey up here in the PD not being investigated, not being prosecuted. That's why we have hundreds of cases across the state not being investigated. Well, on day one you know who's going to bring law and order to South Carolina? I for damn sure am bringing law and order to South Carolina. Just like Donald Trump who started deporting millions of illegals on day one, and we have a lot up here at Horry County, you all see him getting dropped off, you see him at the Home Depot on the corner, that is happening here in Myrtle Beach and we all see it with our own eyes. That is a fact.
(05:45)
In South Carolina, we are a Republican state, we are a red state. We're supposed to be a MAGA conservative state. Did you know that we have rogue sheriffs here in South Carolina who are sanctuary sheriffs, who are ignoring state law and federal law? Wouldn't you know over the last four years, we had a sanctuary sheriff, Kristin Graziano, and I would say pay very close attention to the protesters as you leave today because you're going to see on their boards outside singing praise for sanctuary Sheriff Kristin Graziano at Charleston County who for four years, four years said she would not work with ICE, she refused to work with ICE, she refused to detain illegal aliens, even though we get paid as a state for the beds that they occupy when they are detained, and she let out rapists, she let out murderers, and she let out pedophiles who are here illegally in our state, she let them walk free in South Carolina.
(06:52)
They could leave Charleston and come right up in their car to Myrtle Beach or Greenville, or Spartanburg, Columbia, anywhere in the state, anywhere in the country. She did that. Do you know who stopped her in November of last year? I did. I was the only person. Not a single statewide leader in South Carolina said a damn thing about sanctuary Sheriff Kristin Graziano, but I did, and I got her unelected in a blue county that Kamala Harris won by 11 points. We got a Republican conservative sheriff in Charleston County, South Carolina, by one point, and on day one with ICE. We did that, South Carolina did that, MAGA, MAGA did that.
(07:44)
Just like I stopped a sanctuary sheriff in South Carolina, you know who else I stopped? I stopped George Stephanopoulos on ABC News. Did you see that? Crazy. Crazy George Stephanopoulos, he tried to say the president was a rapist, and he's not, he's never been convicted of rape. I as a rape survivor went to bat for the president over and over and over again because I know just like we have in Horry County, we got real men in Horry County, real men, and you all are packing heat and we appreciate it. Real men protect women, and Donald Trump has protected women from day one, day one. In that interview that I did in New York with George Stephanopoulos, I don't mind doing it, I'll go into the lion's den. Bill Maher just called me the other day and asked us to come on the show, and I'm going to do it.
(08:39)
I'm going to go into every lion's den because we need people to hear the MAGA message, the independent voice that Donald Trump is, that he's going to save our country. [inaudible 00:08:50] that $15 million interview, I call it, [inaudible 00:08:53] Stephanopoulos learned a $15 million lesson. Trump won that defamation suit, right? Now Nancy Mace will not back down and Nancy Mace will hold the line. I don't want a commission, okay? That would be really nice if I could get a commission off that 15 million. Imagine how many bridges we could build with that. I haven't told the president this, but my one ask, I just want one ask because the 15 million is supposed to be used to build his presidential library, I just want my name over a women's bathroom. I'll just say just give me a plaque. Just give me a plaque with my name on it and say, " Only women here." That's what we're going to do.
(09:31)
Just like I stopped the sanctuary sheriff in South Carolina, I stopped George Stephanopoulos, I stopped the Secret Service director after Donald Trump was shot. You all saw her come before the oversight committee last year weeks after he was shot lying to the American people, obstructing justice for the President, and we had some people that filed a resolution, "Hey, let's impeach her." Oh, that's nice, but it didn't matter because it didn't force a vote on the floor of the US House of Representatives. I saw that and I chuckled. I was like, "Ah, that's great." You know what we're going to do? We're going to force a vote in the US House of Representatives to impeach the director of the Secret Service after Donald J. Trump was shot.
(10:21)
Who filed that privileged resolution? I did, I did. Did you know 12 hours later, Kim Cheatle resigned as the director of the Secret Service? I'm just saying, I've done a lot for the president, and if you talk to him, I would really like his support for governor because Horry is leading the way and it's incredible here. I feel so refreshed. You are God-fearing, you love the president, you have been there with the president through thick and thin, and you're going to carry South Carolina for this governor's race. I cannot do it alone, I can't do it alone. I've got to do it with God's grace and I've got to do it with every single voter in Horry County who is ready for the truth, who is never going to back down, and who is going to hold the line for every hard-working South Carolinian. It happens right here. You were my first town hall on the road to governor of South Carolina right here in Horry County.
(11:29)
Before I wrap it up, because I want to do a little bit of policy because the press says I like my pajamas. They want to write about my pajamas, they want to write about my memes, and they're funny, I think it's funny. Some of it's very funny because the ridiculousness of the left, they're insane, they're lunatics. I have a little bit of fun with it. I want you to know what it's like to drive 12 hours through the night to get to DC
Nancy Mace (12:00):
... to vote on the Big Beautiful Bill. I did that. I did it. We were in a nice van. We had some dark chocolate. We stayed up all night and we did it. We got there and we voted like 10 minutes later. It was fantastic, but that's what I'm willing to do for Donald Trump. When my flight got canceled, my staff and I got in a car in a van and we hit the road and we drove 12 hours through the storms, through the rain, through the night just so we could vote on the Big Beautiful Bill. The last thing I want to say two more things is that when we elected Mike Johnson as speaker in January, it was really important for Donald Trump to get the speaker that he wanted and that we did it in the first try because if we didn't do it in the first try, it was going to be days, weeks, and months before we had a speaker of the house.
(12:47)
We were down to two holdouts who were unwilling to vote for speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, whom Trump wanted one of those two holdouts is in this race. So you know what I did? I called the president on my phone and he is like, "Nancy, I'm golfing." And I said, "Mr. President, we got two more holdouts." So he'd been on the phones, he'd been working it. He got to the first seven of the nine and we were down to the last two and I shoved my phone in the face of the speaker, Mike Johnson. I said, "The president's on the phone and what are we going to do now?" And I put the last two holdouts on the phone, not just my phone, my personal phone with the president and with Mike Johnson and with the last two holdouts in a private room and what I witnessed the president do, the deal that he negotiated, the way that he brought everybody together in the room who had opposing views, opposing issues.
(13:43)
Because in the Republican Party, we believe in freedom. We believe in independence and independent thinking, we don't always agree and that's okay, but when there's one guy in the room that can bring all of us together, I witnessed it and that man was Donald J. Trump. So I was there for him when we got the speaker elected too. But six years ago, people say, "Well, don't you have any hobbies? What do you do?" I say, "I just work. I am addicted to this job. I love what I'm doing in the house in Congress, but I have learned so much of how to be an effective legislator." The press won't tell you I've drafted more bills than most members of Congress. I'm ranked like 1.59% or something. I'm in the top 10 or 12. I'm very methodical about the policies and I want to bring that same energy to the state of South Carolina. The reason I'm so passionate is because God has given me so many second chances in life. I didn't come up clean. I'm a high school dropout. I dropped out of high school at the age of 17. I took a job at the Waffle House on College Park Road in Ladson when I was 17. Who's been to Waffle House? Who's my waffle? Okay, where are my after midnight Waffle House people? And I still have Hotel California on my playlist on Spotify. Don't judge. I listen to it every time I hit the road because I feel like I've been to a Waffle house. But that's where I got started. I stood on a piece of duct tape of foot wide and I would yell to the cooks in the back of the kitchen at the Waffle House how my customers wanted their hash browns, smothered, covered, chunked.
(15:21)
You can get them peppered. Now they have fancy jalapenos, don't get them they're really hot, but it's still the best cup of coffee you can get for $2 in America. And it sure as heck ain't Starbucks. So I don't want that woke coffee at all. But that taught me a lesson about being humble. It taught me about the value of hard work. And it said maybe I wanted to finish high school. Maybe I had made a really bad mistake and my parents said, "You're going to stop going to school. You got to start going to work." And that's what I did. And finally, I would eventually get the equivalent of a high school diploma. I would go to the Citadel where I become the first female graduate of the Citadel, 26 years ago this summer. And I'm feeling old, I'm getting close to 50. And I got a kid who just graduated high school and going to school.
(16:10)
But the Citadel taught me about courage and it taught me about having a backbone. And it taught me that sometimes we just don't care, we're going to do the hard work because we're going to do what's right every single time. And that is a tough lesson to learn as a kid. And I got out of college and I made my way about six years ago in 2019, May of 2019, I was going through a divorce. Not my first one, my second one. I know there's some of you in the room when we share that. I know I'm not the only one, but I was in church. I'm like, why God, why is this happening? How do I get through this? And I was thinking about running for Congress. What was I going to do? What was I going to do when I grow up? But I still didn't know.
(16:55)
I still don't know. And I'm sitting there in the church and it was Josh Surratt Seacoast Church and he's preaching on Jeremiah 6:16 and it's about being at a crossroads in life. And I was at a devastating crossroads. Would I be able to keep my home? Would I be able to keep my children half the time? How would this look? Would I have the money to pay the mortgage? What would I do to forge up? What was my future? What did it look like? And I'm bawling. I'm in tears. And my son, he was 12 at the time, he put his little 12-year-old arm around my waist and he squeezed me and he said, "Mommy, I love you." I think it was the first time my kid... They don't want to tell you they love you at 12, but he said, "Mommy, I love you. It's going to be okay. We are going to be okay."
(17:40)
And by the grace of God, I have not since spontaneously combust the first time I went in and that I learned that the church is for sinners, not saints, and that the road to redemption can be long, but it is graceful. When you believe in God and you obey Him, He gives you everything. I don't need riches and money. I need riches in getting South Carolina straight and serving people that got me to where I am today because I've been there. I have been in a tough spot. I have been broke. I have dropped out of school. I have questioned whether or not I would make it. I have been part of a broken justice system 'cause of what happened to me two years ago as a member of Congress. What happened to me two years ago could happen to me then what the heck are they doing to everybody else who doesn't have a seat in Congress? And I want to take what's broken in South Carolina and I want to burn it down to the ground and build it right back up, right where it needs to be.
(18:43)
Because you own it. You deserve it. You deserve someone who is going to work 24/7. I don't sleep. I went to bed at one and I was up at four. Okay? I am trumping high heels. I love what I'm doing. I mean, he doesn't sleep. I don't do the McDonald's and fried fish. He's way healthier than I am, but I'm following his lead because set a good example and no one will work harder for South Carolina than I will. So thank you for being here. God bless you. I'm going to show you a couple of my plans because I don't want you to believe what the fake news is going to tell you that Nancy Mace only does memes, not to take her seriously. When I am one of the most serious members of Congress, they don't like conservative women. They don't like it when women speak up. The left hate women. They want men in our bathrooms. We're going to stop that in South Carolina because on day one, if you give me a bathroom bill, state legislature, I will sign it into law.
(19:45)
We're going to keep men out of women's spaces. But one of the things I wanted show you, one of the things I wanted to show you is on this map you'll see in South Carolina we have the highest seat income tax rate in the southeast. We have a 6% sales tax. We have high property taxes. We have a hovering around 6% state income tax. North Carolina is lower, Georgia is lower. Tennessee just got down to zero. Florida is zero, Texas is zero. We cannot compete with other states when our state income tax is this high. So on this board over here, we have a state budget that's worth about 40.1, 41.6, somewhere in there, just over $40 billion a year, and there are three different major buckets in the budget. One of them when you're reading about the state budget is called the general fund, and it's about one third of the budget.
(20:33)
Well, pre-COVID, the general fund in 2019 was around $9 billion. Post-covid in the 2024, 2025 year, it has skyrocketed to 13.2 billion. I want to find somewhere in the middle in 2022, 2023 fiscal year, I want to freeze spending to that level at $11.6 billion. Because if we do that, you can see this blue above the red line here, every single year after that, when we have record revenues like we have historically over the last five years, we can give that money back to you the taxpayer in a permanent tax cut, just like Donald Trump has done, just like he said. But to speed it up, you'll see I have earmarks on this board. We've all heard of earmarks, right? Those are pet projects that have nothing to do with growing the economy or getting you a good wage paying job. In 2019, earmarks were $30 million a year, and then just that year ago, 2023, 2024 fiscal year, they were 700 million.
(21:32)
We went from 30 to 700 million in two years for earmarks. So to speed up the general fund rebate back to taxpayers, if we just cut earmarks in half, hell, I would take zero. But if you just cut them in half, you can speed up the tax rebate. If we had every state government agency cut two to 4%, you can speed up the taxes from five years to zero. My plan is called Five Years to Zero. If you froze hiring in the state government, you could speed up this plan. So we'll go on to the next board for that. That's my plan for taxes. The next one I think is education. What do we have? That's five years to zero. I just went through that. We can pull that one down. When they say I don't do policy, I do a lot of policy. I wrote this policy by the way, myself. Okay, law and order, we've heard it.
(22:21)
No sanctuary loopholes. The other thing I forgot to say, I want to find businesses. If you are employing illegal aliens for labor and we catch you, you will be fined a thousand dollars a day. We're going to give that revenue back to taxpayers. We're going to find you and we're going to find you. We're not going to have any sanctuary loopholes. There are Republicans in this state legislature who will tell you we banned sanctuary cities. We banned sanctuary policies, but they did not ban sanctuary sheriffs. And when we had one, nobody spoke up. And so we will not do that. We will work with ICE from day one. We have over 400 beds available right now that the state has empty that we could provide to ICE and to DHS to increase the deportations we were doing every single day in South Carolina, and the state can get reimbursed for it.
(23:19)
We are not doing that now. So that is something else that I would implement. The other thing, we are going to prosecute crimes. Gone are the days of no juries. Gone are the days of no prosecutions. We have a prosecutor, I told us in Sumter County... Case two weeks ago, in one week, and there was 16 murder cases in Sumter. It's crazy. And if we have solicitors that are refusing to prosecute cases, I want the state to defund those prosecutors. We're done, we're done. I want justice for every single victim in South Carolina. I also
Nancy Mace (24:00):
... want to increase the penalties for violent crimes. We're not following the mandatory minimum sentencing. We're not doing that. And for some of these crimes, you're getting a $100 fine, a $500 fine, it's nothing. And they don't even have to pay it.
(24:13)
And I will tell you, there's a case I'm talking about that Alan Wilson, our attorney general, prosecuted recently, and he denies, and he lies about it, is the case of Donald Gresh. And I encourage you to go Google, Donald Gresh. He's a convicted pedophile. He was found with 1,900 images of toddlers as young as three being raped by animals. I am not lying, you can find the files, the police reports, and everything. The police, our men and women in blue, they do all the investigation and our AG and our solicitors don't prosecute. That's what happened in this case.
(24:54)
He was charged. He was indicted. There was a nice, big beautiful press release that Alan Wilson put out, "Oh my gosh, we're going to prosecute this pedophile." 60 years, he was looking at 60 years, Alan Wilson did a plea deal in 15 minutes and denies it. It's in the paperwork, you can read it for yourself. And in the plea deal, they pled down every indictment except for one. Does anyone want to guess how many days Donald Gresh served in jail? One day in jail for a pedophile that had 1,900 images of kids as young as three being raped by animals, one day. Donald Gresh isn't the only one. Do you think that would ever happen on my watch?
Group (25:41):
No.
Nancy Mace (25:43):
Hell no. Not happening.
(25:45)
On education, we have been talking about school choice for decades. I, of course, support school choice and I support expanding school choice. Then in the meantime, until we have that fight in the courts, there were two things. The state of South Carolina, we're about 25th in the country on what we spend per student. We're 25th, right in the middle, we're dead last in outcomes. I mean, we're behind Mississippi. I don't want to be behind Mississippi in anything. If you're from Mississippi, we love you, thanks for bringing your money here, but I don't want to be behind education in Mississippi.
(26:20)
It's two things, remember. And I'm modeling this a little bit after Florida. I have read what other states are doing, we're not going to reinvent the wheel. We're going to do what other states are doing and they're doing better, they're doing well, we want to do it too. Mandatory automated, you're held back in third grade if you can't read and write. We're going to narrow those exceptions. I want our young boys and girls to be able to read and write because if you can't read and write, if you're not ready for middle school, you'll never be ready for high school and you'll never be ready for those good paying jobs we have right here in South Carolina. And if a kid cannot read by third grade, then we're going to assign them a reading mentor and they're going to be required to read 90 minutes a day while they're in school. That is what the state of Florida does, we can do it here in South Carolina because literacy is the way to bring our children out of poverty and into prosperity.
(27:16)
And then the second thing that I want to do is I want to have two very distinct high school diplomas. Not everybody in this room has a college degree, you don't need one. In fact, my plumber... Oh my god, who's called a plumber lately? I think I'm paying like 300 an hour, 400 an hour. My plumber vacations in the summer in Cape Cod. So I'm doing it wrong, you know what I'm doing When I retire, I'm going to be a plumber. But I want to have two very specific degrees, one for the kids who are going to go on to college a two or four year degree, that's great, but then I want to have a second track. I want these students ready and certified in a trade and highly skilled job. You'll have a specific diploma track. If you are certified to weld, you get a high school diploma. If you are certified to become a plumber, you get a high school diploma. If you are certified as an electrician, you get a high school diploma. If you get your CDL or commercial driver's license, you are going to get your high school diploma. And kids who are watching around today, if you have a CDL, the starting salary for a lot of truck drivers in South Carolina is $80,000 a year. In fact, when I graduated from the Citadel, it's crazy good, I graduated from the Citadel, I had a four-year degree, I taught myself to code and I became a computer programmer my first day out of college. I made $35,000 a year.
(28:42)
Well, one of my high school boyfriends from Stratford, he was a welder, that guy at 18 was making 80 grand a year. He owns two homes today in Summerville. He's done really well, and if you have a nuclear welding certificate in South Carolina, you're making $110,000 a year. It's incredible. And I don't want us importing these jobs from North Carolina or Georgia, I want them created right here at home for our people, your sons, your daughters, you.
(29:13)
All right, the next one, so we can do pictures here shortly. Infrastructure, you know that we have a lot of crumbling roads. One of the things the press will not tell you, I am one of the leading members of Congress who's gotten resources for our state. In fact, our office assisted in getting the largest infrastructure grant in South Carolina history at $195 million earlier this year. The press won't tell you that.
(29:44)
I want to make sure that all of our projects are shovel ready. We didn't spend the last four years getting shovel ready during the Biden administration, now that we have Trump as president and the money is flowing. I want to audit SCDOT. Of course we're going to build I-73, that's happening. But yes, give an applause for that, that's been a long time coming. And I want to work hand in glove with our delegation in Congress to show them how we can get these authorizations, how we get the appropriations, getting more grant funding is going to be a robust operation because we are not there yet. We don't have the resources that we need to take care of our own roads and bridges.
(30:25)
And then lastly, I got two more things, women and kids and the energy. On the women and kids crisis we have, did you know that your tax dollars are funding colleges in South Carolina who can't define what a woman is? Did y'all see my video? If you're not following me on X, I'm @NancyMace. But a couple months ago I discovered that Clemson University had a form on their website with 15 genders. And did you know male and female were not two of the genders. I am not lying. I did a video on social media. Three hours later I got a call from the president of Clemson and the form was taken down.
Group (31:08):
Yay. Yeah.
Nancy Mace (31:14):
I have a kid who just graduated high school, is applying to college that will not be named and he was applying for his dormitory, 13 genders on this university in South Carolina. He's like, "Mama, you've got to take a look at this." He's like, "But don't screenshot it." I screenshot it, okay? I couldn't help myself. So I did a little video on social media. 48 hours later, the school took the form down and I'm not even governor yet, imagine what we'll do. We had another school that was promoting cross-dressing on its website. I did a little video on social media and they took it down the very next day. And I will not fund a single college or university that decides that men can be women, men can be pregnant, men can be in our girls locker rooms and dormitories and showers. No, I'm not doing it.
(32:09)
And I'll sign it backing bill. I'll make sure that child rapists get the death penalty. And on that... oh, the press is going to be so mad, they're not going to tell you about this one either. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, we did the National Defense Authorization Act in Congress. I sit on the House Armed Services Committee and this is where we do all the authorizations for the Pentagon and the DOD. You're not going to like this, guess who got some of the highest number of amendments in the Defense Authorization Act? I did, 26 amendments on that committee. Now, one of those amendments was to amend the UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If you are a child rapist, you will get the death penalty. We did that three weeks ago in Congress. So I put my money where my mouth is, we're doing it.
(33:08)
And then on energy, we have an energy crisis. The state spent $9 billion about a decade ago to build VC summer, our nuclear plant and you didn't get a damn thing back from it. $9 billion up in smoke, gone. We're not going to do that. I'm actually working with the EPA right now on energy policy, but we're going to work smarter, not harder. We're going to have it all of the above approach. I'm working with the EPA now to be able to, for South Carolina to be able to generate energy off backup generators, for example, sell it back to the grid. But two weeks ago, the state shut down five facilities so that we wouldn't have a ruling blackout here in South Carolina. We have an energy crisis and it's here.
(33:47)
I want us to get in on these small modular reactors, the SMRs, we've got data centers popping up. We want to have small nuclear, more affordable, but we've got to get it here in the US. I recently met with the Japanese consulate. Japan and France are leading the world in small nuclear reactors. We have to get in the game and we have to fix it.
(34:07)
And with that, I want to say two things, we're going to take... Are we taking questions here? All right, we have a second microphone. We're going to take questions for about 10 minutes or so. And then what I want to do, I'm here and I will stay to the end. I'll take a picture with each and every one of you. I will shake your hand. I'll give you a hug if you need it. I will take a prayer if you'll give it, because this is a fight. This is not a sprint, it is a marathon. And I need all the help I can get. You can also tonight when you get home, or before you leave your car and drive away. On your phone, you can go to nancymace.org and you can just give a dollar and tell us that you were here tonight and tell us that you will support our campaign. I won't ask for anything more, just $1, because my opponents are going to have big money from big companies and big special interests and we are grassroots funded.
(35:02)
And I will tell you the grassroots, in the first 10 hours of my campaign for governor, you and the grassroots raise more money in the first 10 hours of my race than any other candidate has in this race in 10 days, their first 10 days. You did that. And online our average donation was $22 online. I'm not even asking for that, don't even do that. Just do one single dollar, please.
(35:28)
With that, we'll do some questions. I love Horry County. I bleed red, white, and blue with all of you. And if you love Trump, I hope you'll love some Nancy Mace, and I'm going to need your help on the campaign. I will take any questions tonight. God bless each and every one of you. Thank you.
(35:50)
We're having trouble with the second mic. Okay, do you want to find somebody and you can just shout?
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Hi. Do you intend to take any action to remove
Audience Member 1 (36:00):
... remove fluoride from our water?
Nancy Mace (36:02):
Fluoride from our water? I would support any action to remove fluoride from our water and also ban chemtrails.
Audience (36:08):
Yeah! Yes.
Nancy Mace (36:08):
We should do that. Other states are doing it. Tennessee I think recently did it, as well-
Audience (36:11):
And Florida just did.
Nancy Mace (36:12):
Florida just did it. We will follow. Again, I want us to lead. I don't want to be following. But if we have to follow other states until we get there, we will do it. But I support it. Yep. And even if you're a Democrat in the room, I will take your question. Just don't tackle me. I'll take any question.
Piper (36:28):
Why don't we do you right there?
Audience Member 2 (36:29):
So...
Piper (36:29):
Oh, wait. We have a mic.
Nancy Mace (36:29):
We have a microphone.
Audience (36:31):
Oh, yeah. Use the mic.
Audience Member 2 (36:36):
I'm really big on the law order part of your campaign. My husband is [inaudible 00:36:39] PD, and [inaudible 00:36:42] PD, and he was on your task force for the airport in Charleston two summers ago. At that time, I had a private conversation with a neighbor regarding how one of our local Goose Creek police officers is trans, which got screenshotted and sent to my city administrator, who then sent it to the chief of police there, who then tried to get my husband fired twice, based on all lies.
(37:04)
I have for you my full statement and the investigations done by the chief of police at the airport. I've also been in contact with several senators and House of Representatives, and they say to come to you because you're going to make the noise.
Nancy Mace (37:16):
Yeah, and I will.
Audience Member 2 (37:16):
Especially being from Goose Creek.
Nancy Mace (37:20):
No, I am from Goose Creek, and I'm so sorry that happened. Jamie, can you take that from her?
Jamie (37:24):
Yes.
Nancy Mace (37:24):
You've got a First Amendment right and you can't be fired for that. You have a First Amendment right.
Audience Member 2 (37:28):
Well, it wasn't even my job. She went after my husband with complete lies. It's all proven in that, if you take time to read it, and there's even more. I have screenshots.
Nancy Mace (37:36):
And I'm deeply sorry.
Audience Member 2 (37:37):
I had many cops reach out to me after this confirming it, saying they would testify. And they also sent me screenshots of their group chat of the traffic unit where they target people, they laugh about it. They target people and neighborhoods.
Nancy Mace (37:51):
Yeah. I'm a victim of the justice system like you all are, and we have a lot of victims that are coming forward and asking for help because they know I'm the only one who will make the noise to get justice for victims.
Audience Member 2 (38:00):
Yeah, that's the big thing.
Nancy Mace (38:01):
I will do it no matter the cost.
Audience Member 2 (38:02):
Thank you.
Nancy Mace (38:03):
I have risked my career trying to help victims, and I've done that my entire career, but particularly early this year in February. I'm willing to risk my career for you, for your family, and do what is right and hold those accountable to do what's right because law and order is going to come to South Carolina. It's going to come.
Audience Member 3 (38:24):
Nancy, back when the floods happened in North Carolina and Trump was visiting, he said he was going to make sure that everybody that was in an endangered area or lived in the coastal community would get a tax credit on a generator, and he hasn't brought that up lately. So, will you just please remind him?
Nancy Mace (38:41):
I can absolutely remind him. The only thing that I want to say about FEMA and disaster relief... So, I did a bill last year that would take funding, about $1.45 billion out of FEMA, because FEMA was caught housing... They had a housing program for illegal aliens. The White House denied it, and wouldn't you know, there were Republicans and Democrats in Congress who voted to give FEMA $1.45 billion to spend on housing illegal aliens. It's incredible. And I did a bill for that, and I will be the biggest voice as governor making sure that does not happen again.
Audience Member 4 (39:23):
Yes. I'd like to know what your stance is on the Second Amendment, banning rifles or what have you.
Nancy Mace (39:30):
We're not banning anything. We're not banning anything. And if you follow me on social media, @NancyMace, I was just at a company-
Audience (39:40):
Nice cheese.
Nancy Mace (39:41):
Nice cheese. I was just at a company called R2P. So, some of the best bulletproof doors made in America are made right here in South Carolina, and I actually took a 762 round into one of the doors. I barely missed the target. I was like one quarter of an inch off the target. But I shot the other day and I was reminded to get back at the range. But we're not banning any guns.
(40:06)
Actually, when I was a state lawmaker in the State House a couple of years ago before I went to Congress, I wrote a bill making reciprocity when you needed the permit in South Carolina and other states. I drafted a reciprocity bill. I've been very supportive of it. I own several firearms myself. If you're asking, my favorite gun to carry is a SIG Sauer P365. That's my favorite. I like that grip. It's perfect for my hand. H&K is good, too. It's too big to carry, though.
Audience Member 4 (40:34):
Constitutional carry?
Nancy Mace (40:36):
What's that?
Audience Member 4 (40:37):
Constitutional carry?
Nancy Mace (40:38):
Oh, I'm all for open carry, Constitutional carry.
Audience Member 4 (40:41):
Okay.
Nancy Mace (40:41):
Yep.
Audience Member 4 (40:41):
Nationwide?
Nancy Mace (40:43):
Oh, yeah. Yep.
Audience Member 5 (40:44):
Nancy, my question is, is everybody seeing DOGE doing its thing up in the big White House? Are you going to bring that here to South Carolina? And the rumor is it's already on its way.
Nancy Mace (40:56):
I hope like hell DOGE South Carolina is on its way. We just signed a rescission package that would cut $9 billion that DOGE identified in cuts. I've helped DOGE find some of these crazy contracts. We're wasting hundreds of millions of dollars, sometimes billions of dollars. Gotten some of those contracts canceled. I've had a hand in that. We already have a committee that's supposed to be looking at waste, fraud, and abuse in South Carolina, but I don't get the sense they're doing anything.
(41:24)
And so, in my economic plan to reduce the state income tax, band-aiding the agencies cut 3% to 4% annually, doing hiring freezes, all of that gets us to that moment. And of course we've got to audit some of our agencies, particularly the Department of Education. I want to know where all the money's going, and can we take some of it out of the bureaucracy and give it to our teachers?
Audience (41:46):
Yep. And get rid of that common core crap.
Nancy Mace (41:51):
Oh, yeah. Common core out the window. All right, we'll do three more questions, because I'm sweating. I'm sweating, and I want to shake your hands and give you a hug. And the lady in the back in black right there.
Audience Member 6 (41:58):
Hi, miss Nancy.
Nancy Mace (42:01):
Hey, baby. How are you?
Audience Member 6 (42:02):
Hi. You know I ain't seen you since the last time.
Nancy Mace (42:05):
Thank you for being here.
Audience Member 6 (42:08):
Okay. This is the question I need to ask you, just for you to let me know who I should be talking to, or is you the person that I need to talk to if you get in the seat? What I'm worrying about, I'm running for city council in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. What I am definitely number one about is our public safety. So, what about as far as giving the money and helping out, giving us more trainings and give us an incentive, or whatever we can do to make better for our safety for our areas? Put it that way.
Nancy Mace (42:39):
So, with regards to public safety and training, we have basically one police academy, and you have to go to Columbia to train there. When I was a state lawmaker, I worked with different chiefs of the police in South Carolina to get resources to regional areas, whether that was Horry County or the low country, the PD, the low country, the midlands, the upstate, etc. to have regional training facilities so we could more quickly train our policemen and women.
(43:07)
That still hasn't happened, and it doesn't have to cost a lot to do it, but we're not doing it. And it is something that I would support, because we've got guys who sign up to put their life on the line, guys and gals, to put on the uniform and keep our communities safe, and they can't get trained. And so, they sit there for six months, nine months, however long it is pushing some paper and a pencil behind a desk, not getting trained and getting out there on the streets and keeping us safe.
(43:34)
And the other thing that we have to do... Because I've gone on some ICE raids, I have gone on some drives, some ride-alongs with police. But we also have to have our business community get on board. We have hotels that they call "zombie hotels" that you can drive by, and you can see people high as a kite on drugs, and prostitution, and fentanyl, and human trafficking and all these things, and where are our municipalities and counties and towns? Where are the resources to help them fight this kind of thing that's happening right on the streets of South Carolina?
(44:13)
And then we know that there are certain streets in our state that are taken over by the Sinaloa Cartel, by the MS-13 gangs, by Tren de Agua. In my hometown of Goose Creek, like four years ago one of the largest human trafficking busts in Goose Creek. 28 people arrested. We had three Tren de Agua members arrested a couple weeks ago for trying to steal from a gun store in Somerville, South Carolina. It's crazy what's happening, which is why I want our state to have trained law... I would deputize our police officers to detain illegals. Let's go. I'm ready. Let's go. All right, one more question, I think? One more question.
Audience Member 7 (45:04):
I would like to know with the kids that are graduating, they need to know how to be an adult. To take care of themselves, to clean, to cook.
Nancy Mace (45:16):
We need to bring back home ec.
Audience Member 7 (45:16):
To go to the grocery store.
Audience (45:17):
Yes.
Nancy Mace (45:17):
We can do home ec. We've got to bring back home ec.
Audience Member 7 (45:18):
To open a checking account, to read American history. They need all those things to survive in the world, and the majority of them don't get that. And if our schools and the parents don't do it, how are we going to have good citizens in this country?
Nancy Mace (45:35):
I love it. I think I heard you want to bring home ec back and teach those basic skills. We can bring home ec back. I also want to bring back cursive.
Audience (45:52):
Yes. Yeah!
Nancy Mace (45:54):
These kids, they don't know how to sign their name. How can you sign your name if you don't learn cursive? And the thing... I love to write. All those boards you saw, my policies, I wrote that. Op-eds, did you see that I write? I write them. I love to write. And when you learn to write, especially when you learn to write in cursive, our kids learn to think. And so, we have got to bring cursive back so our kids can get to critical thinking. Thank you all. God bless. We're going to do a line. Piper's going to tell you how we're going to do it. Okay?
Piper (46:22):
All right, everyone. So, we'll take your phone, we'll take a picture, then you'll look at our camera, we'll take another picture. We'll all line up right here, and we'll feed out this way. Make sure we have a clear path to get out of the door. It may be raining out there, but that way we can all get out safely.
Nancy Mace (46:43):
I think the line should go this way.
Audience (46:44):
[inaudible 00:46:50].
Piper (46:51):
The line will start over here, and we will funnel out this way. We'll do quick, quick. Everyone, make sure you have your cell phone out ready to take a photo.