A military vet with a Hilton Head connection: Mac Deford wants to beat Mace for Congress

Mac Deford wasn’t always a Democrat.

But on Thursday the 35-year-old announced that he is running as one for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, trying to win over independents, like he used to be, and Republicans.

Deford’s second campaign stop, after a brewery in Charleston, was at Hilton Head Brewing Company March 14. There, he appealed to members of the only South Carolina district that former president Donald Trump didn’t win in the Feb. 24 GOP presidential primary.

The anti-Trump message was especially relevant considering Trump endorsed incumbent U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Isle of Palms, days earlier this month.

“Donald Trump is not just a candidate, he is a movement,” Deford said. “And that movement is MAGA extremism.”

To about 70 people over 15 minutes, he explained his path to Congress was to mobilize Democrats and win over independents and disillusioned Republicans with the Democratic Party’s ideals. He touched on being pro-choice, supporting gun control and sticking up for educators, mentioning Beaufort County’s fight against book bans and leveraging his experience as a U.S. Coast Coast Guard member and Citadel graduate.

“Nancy Mace won’t be the only Citadel graduate in this race,” he said.

To go against the Republican nominee in the general election, the attorney will have to beat out Michael B. Moore in the Democratic Party’s June primary. Moore is legendary Beaufortonian Robert Smalls’ great-great grandson and kicked off his campaign earlier this month in Beaufort.

Deford had his ties to where he campaigned in Beaufort County, too. He most recently worked as General Counsel for the Town of Hilton Head, meaning he represented the town in legal matters.

After the Democratic Party’s primary, the next phase would be for Deford to win against the Republican candidate, flipping the the U.S. House seat for South Carolina. It’s a feat Joe Cunningham did for the first time in 30 years when he won the 1st District seat in 2018. Mace beat Cunningham in 2020 and was reelected in 2022.

Mace is running against Catherine Templeton, who has publicly declared her candidacy, and Dan Hanlon, Mace’s former chief of staff, who has filed to raise money for the race.

“They had to cheat,” Deford said of the Republicans winning the elections after Cunningham, referencing a ruling by a panel of three federal judges of the Federal District Court in Columbia. They ruled the boundaries of the 1st Congressional District, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the constitutional prohibition on racially based gerrymandering. That ruling was in January 2023 and the case has since been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in October, which hasn’t released a decision yet.

The other U.S. Supreme Court decision that is top of mind for Deford is Roe vs Wade. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the case in 2022, reversing its five-decade-old decision that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

He told the story of Adele Coughlin, who was denied the right to a legal abortion in 1960 and died from a back alley procedure, leaving eight children motherless.

“One of those children was my mother,” he said, promising that if elected, he would introduce legislation to codify the right to an abortion.

For Sun City resident Laura Pucko, 74, abortion is an issue that makes a difference while deciding how to vote, although she hasn’t always identified as a Democrat. Pucko aligns with the majority of Americans who, at 61%, say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to Pew Research Center. On the other end, 37% say it should be illegal in all or most cases. Her husband, Tim, 79, said he has always considered himself independent, but he will be voting for Deford in the Democratic Party’s primary election.

Deford used to identify as an independent, like Tim and others in the audience. He said he wasn’t all that into politics, but his opinion changed when he entered the military and once he hit his mid-20s.

“The G.I. Bill allowed me to go to college,” he said to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette as an example of Democratic Party values that swayed him to join. Deford attended The Citadel and the Charleston School of Law. “Going into the military, you become more aware of what’s going on in the world and how things impact you.”

He said that’s when he discovered “it’s the Democrats that are looking out for people and trying to move this country forward.”

Primary elections for congressional and state legislative seats are June 11. The general election is Nov. 5.