Court ruling gives SC’s Nancy Mace a free pass to deceive | Opinion

Because conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court and Republicans in the S.C. General Assembly discriminated against Black voters, Nancy Mace has more incentive than ever to mislead her constituents in the 1st Congressional District. And that’s precisely what she’s been doing.

A federal appeals court ruled a legislative map that the General Assembly redrew after the 2020 Census was clearly discriminatory. It moved a significant number of Black voters out of the 1st District, whose hub is Charleston, and into the 6th District.

“When asked what community of interest the residents of North Charleston would have with the residents of Congressional District No. 6 in Columbia, (the map maker Will) Roberts could only think of their common proximity to Interstate I-26, albeit over 100 miles apart,” the judges wrote.

The purpose of the new map was clear — to protect the seat Mace now has and will defend in November.

The effect was even more clear. Mace won the seat by only 1 percentage point under the pre-2020 map, but by 14 percentage points under the revamped one. Republicans knew the coast was growing fast and more diverse. To maintain their 6-1 advantage in the state’s U.S. House legislative delegation, they effectively disenfranchised Black voters, continuing a decades-long Republican tradition.

The appeals court ruled a new map must be drawn within 30 days of a Supreme Court ruling. But no ruling has come, forcing the appeals court to allow the map they deemed unconstitutional to stand through this election cycle. Justice delayed has no doubt meant justice denied. Republicans don’t have to care about Black voters or even try to convince them that Republican policies are better than Democratic ones.

There’s been another effect: Mace’s lying.

For a while now, she hasn’t been the most stalwart among elected politicians who want to tell the American public the truth. Now that she knows she will have the benefit of an unconstitutional map to almost ensure a victory in November, she has even fewer reasons to be honest.

Mace recently tweeted that she helped bring in more than $517 million for her district. Not to get too technical, but she voted to “authorize” bills but voted against bills that meant the money would flow into the Lowcountry. She’s trying to use that distinction to take credit for things she tried to block.

Mace did something similar last summer when she took credit for a $26 million federal grant for a project in Charleston. That funding was courtesy of an infrastructure package made possible by the Biden administration and Democrats — a measure Mace voted against.

Now she’s telling more lies, this time about the crime rate.

“You’re seeing since Joe Biden took office, crime skyrocket all around the country, especially in big cities,” she lied into the camera for a short video she recently released.

There was a historic spike in violent crime during the height of COVID when Donald Trump was in office. Since Biden has been in the White House, crime has been dropping at a historic clip. We may have experienced the largest annual drop ever in murders during 2023. Each of the five largest cities saw double-digit percentage drops in murder.

“The rapid decline in homicides isn’t the only story. Among nine violent and property crime categories tracked by the F.B.I., the only figure that is up over the first three quarters of this year is motor vehicle theft,” The New York Times reported.

Those facts don’t much matter. Mace knows she only has to focus on voters convinced the world is going to hell in a handbasket because their preferred candidate isn’t in the White House. She can lie comfortably because Republicans in the S.C. General Assembly and conservatives on the Supreme Court just made her reelection campaign easier.

She’s already become a master of deception, just like the dude she has endorsed to be president again.

Issac Bailey is a Carolinas opinion writer for McClatchy.