South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace announced Saturday that she has no regrets about pushing for the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, hours after President Donald Trump endorsed her opponent in the state’s upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary.
“I voted to release the Epstein files. NO REGRETS,” Mace posted on the social platform X early Saturday morning.
The statement follows Trump’s announcement late Friday that he is backing Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette for the Republican nomination. The late endorsement arrived as early voting is already actively underway for the June 9 primary election.
“Pam Evette is a good friend, fighter, and WINNER, and will be a terrific Governor of South Carolina,” Trump wrote. “Pam has my Complete and Total Endorsement — SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Mace acknowledged on Friday that her demands for transparency regarding the investigation could impact her chances of securing the president’s backing, but stated she stood by her actions.
“I demanded it because you deserved the truth – ALL OF IT – and as a survivor of a corrupt and broken court system, I will always pursue justice for those who deserve it,” Mace wrote on X. “If sacrificing my values is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it.”
Last year, Mace was one of four Republicans to sign a bipartisan discharge petition. The procedural move was designed to force a House vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a piece of legislation requiring the Justice Department to publish millions of documents tied to the federal investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mace has frequently criticized the Department of Justice over its execution of the document rollout, taking issue with both the slow pace of the releases and the heavy redactions applied to the public files. In February, she publicly contended that terabytes of records were still being withheld by federal officials, despite agency assurances that the document review process was finished.
The impact of the new endorsement lands on a highly competitive primary field. A mid-May poll conducted by the South Carolina Policy Council, a free-market think tank, showed the top Republican candidates running nearly neck-and-neck, with 27 percent of likely primary voters still undecided.
Political analysts expect Trump’s endorsement to carry substantial weight in the primary, given that South Carolina Republican voters have demonstrated strong loyalty to the president across the last three presidential election cycles.
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