Rep. Nancy Mace used her farewell moment to launch a grenade straight into her own party. In a New York Times op-ed, she praised Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and said something most Republicans would never dare say out loud. According to Mace, Pelosi “was a more effective Speaker than any Republican this century.”
Both women named Nancy are on their way out of Congress. Mace is jumping into a heated GOP primary for South Carolina governor, and Pelosi announced she won’t run for re-election. But Mace decided to use her exit to make a point about what she sees as a broken House and a Republican Party that doesn’t know how to use power.
Mace wrote that she came to Washington five years ago “believing I could make a difference” for her state and for the country. Instead, she said she discovered a system designed to let party leaders run everything while rank-and-file members spin their wheels. Her biggest complaint was that “no one can be held responsible for inaction,” which means little gets done and members end up wondering, “Why am I even here?”
She said the problems aren’t new. For decades, a tiny group of lawmakers have hammered out huge bills behind closed doors and then dumped thousands of pages on everyone else with almost no time to read them. She slammed leaders of both parties for stripping out what members actually want, stuffing in unrelated policies, capping amendments, and “systematically silenc[ing] rank-and-file voices.” Even when a “bipartisan supermajority” agrees on something, she said, getting a bill to the floor is almost impossible unless members hit the rare 218-vote mark for a discharge petition.
Then came the line that lit up political Twitter. Mace said that while she and Pelosi agree on “essentially nothing,” she still respected Pelosi’s ability to get things done. She wrote that Pelosi understood “no majority is permanent,” so Democrats push hard while they have power. They use their majority to deliver for the coalition that elected them.
Mace said Republicans do the opposite. They win the majority and get “petrified of losing it,” passing only the most watered down legislation they can force conservatives to accept. She said that betrays the voters who put them there. Pelosi, she added, “was ruthless, but she got things done.” Meanwhile, the current House is “restrictive and ineffective” with almost nothing to show for Republican control.
Her warning for Republicans heading into 2026 was blunt. Right now, she said, the GOP has “a governing trifecta the House, the Senate and the White House.” But if Republicans fail to secure the border, address affordability, improve health care, and restore law and order, “we will lose this majority. And we will deserve it.”
Mace’s message landed like a wake-up call wrapped in a farewell letter. Republicans may not love her comparison to Pelosi, but she clearly wanted them to hear it on her way out the door.