COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Republican Nancy Mace defeated current US deputy Joe Cunningham, delivering a blow to the South Carolina Democrats’ achievements two years ago.
Mace, a member of the state council, defeated Cunningham in a chair. Republicans loudly announced that they were determined to step back days after the Democrat’s victory in 2018.
She will only be the second woman elected to a full term in the U.S. House by South Carolina.
Mace had the support of President Donald Trump on Twitter and once worked on the President’s campaign. But while trying to link Cunningham to Mayor Nancy Pelosi, Mace was quite quiet about Trump’s support. Anger at the president helped Cunningham make his bipartisan effort to win in 2018.
Mace is the first woman to graduate from the Citadel.
Cunningham knew he would face a tough fight for re-election immediately and raised $ 6 million. Between the Republican primaries and the general election, Mace raised more than $ 4 million, making it by far the most expensive US House run in South Carolina history.
The constituency that stretches from Charleston to Hilton Head Island along the state’s coast is richer, more educated and less conservative than most of South Carolina. It also had the slightest difference from any Congressional district represented by Republicans in the 2016 presidential election, going to the Republican Party by about 14 percentage points.
Cunningham, 38, worked carefully to build bipartisan support in 2018, getting Republican mayors and other authorities in small coastal towns to support him, opposing offshore drilling.
Cunningham continued to publicize his support for Republicans this year.
Mace promised to continue this bipartisan work and represent everyone in the district.
“It shows how, with the value of hard work, you can make everything possible. My life has been a series of second chances and voters in South Carolina’s first district have given me the chance to show and prove that I will be a compassionate leader, a good listener, an independent thinker, ”Mace told the Associated Press.
Mace was driven by Republicans in a series of races on Tuesday with much higher margins than in recent years.
Mace, 42, left a Republican primary with four candidates. She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in her first political race in 2014 before being twice elected to the South Carolina House.
Mace spent the last few weeks of the race trying to make the closure of the Parris Island Navy training base, near Hilton Head Island, a problem.
Cunningham, along with six of South Carolina’s seven Republicans in the US House and Senate, supported a military spending bill that requires Parris Island to be able to train men and women together in five years.
Navy leaders said that closing Parris Island and building a new base elsewhere was one of several ideas being considered.
Republican Governor Henry McMaster joined others in his party in promising the Marines that they would do whatever the state was asked to do to keep Parris Island open.
___
Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.
___
Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
___
Find full AP election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.