6 FEBRUARY 14, 2021 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 7Just Asking
“Everything that we’ve accomplished
in the last four years is wiped out
in the violence that happened
[at the Capitol]. We have to start
over. We need to rebuild our nation.
We need to rebuild our party.”
INTERVIEW BY KK OTTESEN / PHOTOGRAPH FROM MACE CAMPAIGNNancy Mace, 43, is the newly elected Republican U.S. representative from
South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. Mace was the first woman to
graduate from The Citadel and is the author of “In the Company of Men:
A Woman at The Citadel.” She was most recently a member of the South
Carolina House of Representatives.You have talked about your life as a series of second chances.
Yeah. My life has been a series of successes and failures. As much
as I have succeeded, I have also failed. I dropped out of school when
I was 17. And I had no hope for the future. My first job at that time
was as a waitress at a Waffle House on the side of the interstate. My
parents said if I was going to stop going to school, I had to start
going to work. If I was going to live in their house, I had to live under
their rules. I learned some very tough lessons during some very
tough times. The reason I dropped out was because I was sexually
assaulted by someone at my school. And I lived for a very long time
with that ghost in my closet and could not talk about it to anyone for
25 years, essentially. Back in those days — that was the mid-’90s, and
if you came forward with such an accusation, you were dragged
through the mud. You were judged. It was a frightening, terrifying,
traumatic experience — I was 16 at the time. And I refused to go
back to school.
I think it’s important to share some of those stories because,
oftentimes, I think people are put on a pedestal, especially when
you’re the first woman to graduate from The Citadel. And it’s, like:
No, I’m totally imperfect. And so that makes me a perfect messenger
for all of our failings as human beings, right? In a way, President
Trump changed the paradigm in American politics where you could
be more, I think, true to yourself and authentic. I mean, that’s
important to relate to the American people, especially in times of
struggle. I think people want to hear that honest voice. That rawness,
that realness. No matter how flawed it is.Your very first week in D.C. as a member of Congress was
marred by the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol. What didthat change for you?
The priorities are different now. I think that we need to take a real
hard, strong look and reconcile some of the things that happened.
The fact that we went back into that chamber and continued to
object and debate voter fraud allegations on a ceremonial vote on
January 6th after hundreds of people stormed the Capitol, where five
people died — it was the wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong
message. As Republicans, we need to have a higher standard if we
want people to be able to trust us again. Everything that we’ve
accomplished in the last four years is wiped out in the violence that
happened. We have to start over. We need to rebuild our nation. We
need to rebuild our party. But we can’t do it if this division continues.Did you see anything in that day, that night, or its aftermath that
gives you hope that maybe people are willing to come together
and tone down the rhetoric?
I’m grateful that we did not object to any more [fraud allegations]
after Pennsylvania. I think that was a good start. But it should have
ended before that. I wanted to see more unity and less division,
particularly after what had just transpired. And I want to be part of
the conversation within my party on how we move forward and how
we earn back the trust of the American people. How we ensure that
we communicate our conservative ideas and policies in a way that
shows just how compassionate they really are.
But we’re in a situation now where we have a Democratic
president. And because of the rhetoric, we lost the Senate in Georgia.
We don’t have a majority in the House. We’re going to be very
hamstrung. It’s going to be an enormous challenge for us to be able
to do that now. And so we really reap what we sow. But I’m going to
work hard and try to seek out moderates and build relationships.
That’s what it’s going to take. And both parties need to recognize that
there is a problem and take responsibility. Moving forward, we can’t
have a vacuum of radicals on the left or the right. We’re never going
to get anywhere if we do.KK Ottesen is a regular contributor to the magazine. This interview has been
edited and condensed. For a longer version, visit wapo.st/magazine.