EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is urging her party to look to purple districts such as her own for insight on how to win in 2024.
One of the biggest issues in 2024, according to the South Carolina Republican, will be abortion policy. "It shaped 2022 races, and I do believe that if Republicans ignore it that it will also affect our races in '24," she told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
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Mace has faced criticism from anti-abortion groups and people within the Republican Party who consider her stances on policies surrounding abortion not in line with the anti-abortion movement.
According to her, "It's interesting because I mostly talk about exceptions for rape, for incest, for life of the mother. I talk about women's access to birth control. I talk about adoption services. And that's too radical for some people on the far right."
"You have to ask yourself, 'What the hell is wrong with you?' If you want to reduce the number of abortions in this country, then you also need to increase the number of women who can have access to birth control — safe access to birth control, because we have entire counties in this country that don't have a single OBGYN doctor. If we want to get serious about saving lives, then let's get serious about saving lives and also showing that you can be pro-life and you can be pro-woman at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive," she added.
By ignoring rape, which Mace noted many women have gone through, lawmakers are "being an a**hole to women."
She said that the Republican Party must "show compassion" if it wants to win over suburban mothers and women.
"What I'm trying to do is show a road map and show that middle ground," she explained.
Mace also claimed, "It really wasn't that long ago that my ideas were mainstream in the Republican Party. Just two years ago, pro-life groups embraced a bill that was a 20-week bill with exceptions for rape and incest. But since Roe was overturned, they've moved the goalposts."
She also revealed that some anti-abortion groups are refusing to work with her office because she is trying to expand access to birth control. "It's disgusting," she said.
Mace reiterated the importance of listening to independent voters, particularly the ones from her South Carolina district, which she notes is "very purple."
"This is the road map to winning in states and in districts where independents outnumber Republicans or where Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans — where we can win over suburban women and suburban moms. There's a path to doing that. But you've got to take positions and be vocal about them and show that you care."
Abortion isn't the only policy that Republicans need to appeal to independent voters on, however. Mace added that "gun violence is a huge issue."
"If you're a suburban mom and you're dropping your kids off at school, you worry every single day, 'Is my kids' school going to be the next mass shooting? Or my church or my synagogue or the planned pregnancy center that I volunteer at? Is this going to be the next one?' And because I say gun violence is bad, people automatically think I'm saying gun control," she said.
She suggested that there are actions that can be taken that don't amount to restricting gun rights. According to her, one of these is "a mass or active shooter alert when there is a mass shooting to allow people in a half-mile radius of the shooting to know to take cover, maybe not leave your building or your home or your work, if that's happening, to give people a warning."
In addition, Mace said strengthening background checks as well as "hardening our schools and synagogues and churches with leftover COVID funds" could be viable policy solutions.
"There are so many things that we can do where we can show a middle ground that the vast majority of Americans support," she explained.
While she is sure of the defining policies of the 2024 election, she hasn't yet made up her mind on which Republican candidate or prospective candidate would be best to lead the party.
"I will tell you I have said I am going to watch the race and see how it settles and see who's going to actually be in the race and who's not," she said. Notably, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who is a South Carolinian, has entered the 2024 presidential race, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has launched an exploratory committee for a bid.
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"I've said I'll support the nominee when we get through the process, and I hope that it's a vigorous process right now," Mace said, adding that the party needs to focus less on infighting and more on winning over independent voters in swing districts.
"You have to appeal to independents and moderates and centrists, and even maybe people who are left of center, and I've shown a path and a way to do that as a conservative, being able to bring people over," she said.