SC’s Nancy Mace won’t vote for Steve Scalise for speaker of the House. Here’s why

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace says she will not vote for Majority Leader Steve Scalise for House speaker, citing his past involvement with a white supremacist conference.

Mace was one of eight Republicans who voted Kevin McCarthy out of the speaker’s role. Since, Mace has generated national news and has been anything but quiet about her decision.

Mace, the Isle of Palms Republican, previously considered supporting Scalise, but ultimately has said she will instead support Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan.

“I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” Mace said on CNN Wednesday. “I would be doing an enormous disservice to the voters I represent in South Carolina if I were to do that.”

Scalise served as a state lawmaker in Louisiana before being elected to Congress. When he was a state lawmaker he attended the European-American Unity and Rights Organization — a white supremacy group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Scalise eventually apologized for speaking to the group, and said he hadn’t been aware of any of its controversial history.

However, his past has come back to haunt him again, and this time it may affect his chances for speaker of the House.

In a secret ballot vote Tuesday, Scalise beat Jordan for the GOP’s speaker nomination 113-99, where some members didn’t vote at all. Now, Scalise needs to secure 217 votes to officially win the speakership.

Scalise is far off from 217 votes, and Associated Press reported that some members are still set on voting for Jordan or even McCarthy, even though Jordan has dropped out and McCarthy’s not running.

Mace has made national headlines the past two weeks with her vote to oust McCarthy, and then showing up to congress wearing a scarlet letter T-shirt, claiming she had been demonized for her vote and voice.

Other South Carolina Republican congressmen who previously said they backed Jordan have thrown their support behind Scalise after Tuesday’s GOP Caucus vote.

U.S. Reps. Russell Fry, of Surfside Beach, and Jeff Duncan, of Laurens, both initially tweeted they endorsed Jordan. However, after Scalise won the nomination, Duncan and Fry tweeted that they will now vote for Scalise.