Congresswoman Nancy Mace and her dog, Liberty, inside her posh Isle of Palms home
An American flag waves under a giant, reaching oak tree and beside sturdy palmetto trees – the ultimate image of patriotism in the low country - as Congresswoman Nancy Mace welcomes me in the driveway of her newly purchased Isle of Palms home. Looking sharp and polished in a plaid blazer and fitted black pants, Nancy has just arrived home from her second interview of the day, and it’s only 10 am. She leads me up a staircase and into the gorgeous, coastal foyer she refers to as her “sanctuary.”
Right away, barking echoes in the distance, the noise drawing closer. “That’s Liberty,” she says, and a tiny Havanese scampers over the wooden floorboards and towards our feet to greet us. “We call her Libby.”
Nancy scoops the pup up and we walk toward her brightly lit living room – her favorite spot in the house - passing the kitchen along the way. I can’t help but admire the nautical blue cabinetry in her chef-inspired kitchen, which contrasts beautifully against the white shiplap on the walls.
“Now this is a vacation home,” I coo.
She smiles and nods her head. “It really is. My favorite part about living on IOP is the fact that it’s the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of my job, which is so demanding. I work pretty much seven days a week. I go to Washington [D.C.] and try to get home as quickly as I can. When I get back, I drive over that [Isle of Palms] Connector and all I see is water - the ocean on the horizon - and immediately the stress I’m carrying with me dissipates.”
We agree that whether you’re a tourist or resident on the island, that view never gets old. “I guess that answers my first question,” I say. Nancy grins at me curiously and I explain, “I was going to ask, as a Congresswoman representing Charleston, what made you choose to leave Daniel Island and move to Isle of Palms?”
A smile plays at her lips as she speaks about her new IOP home, which she, her son, Miles (15), daughter, Elli (13), and, fiancé, Patrick Bryant, moved into this past summer/early Fall. “The beach is a really special place for me and my family,” Nancy says before providing insight to some of the wonderful memories and experiences that she’s created here with the people she loves most. She and her kids took up surfing in the last few years and she says that not only is it one of their favorite pastimes, it’s also one of the only things in life that forces her to totally disengage since she must leave her devices on the shore. “No one can email me or text me on the surfboard,” she jokes.
Suddenly, Nancy whips her head to the right as her son enters the kitchen, his disheveled hair a clear indication that the teen has just woken up. He makes his way toward a charging station on the kitchen counter, where his phone is plugged in.
Nancy excuses herself for a moment to speak to Miles. “You can check your phone, honey, but you’ve got to leave it in the charging station until all late homework assignments are turned in and grades get up. You need to complete your English paper today,” she reminds him. Miles groans as he heads back towards his room and Nancy calls out over her shoulder, “I love you!” With his back to us both, he tells her he loves her, too. “Do you have practice tonight?” she asks him before he tells her no. “Okay, well maybe take a shower and I’ll make a smoothie for you when you get out and then we can get started on schoolwork.”
Nancy turns back towards me and nods her head, a signal for me to continue. “It seems like you truly juggle it all so well,” I tell her before pointing out that she will have completed three interviews and helped her son with his homework all before noon today. An impressive feat for anyone, let alone a single working mother of two. Nancy attributes her relationship with her ex-husband to her success juggling life as a single mom while also serving South Carolina as a Congresswoman who travels back and forth to Washington D.C.
“It helps that I have a great relationship with my kids’ dad. I was just at a concert last night with the kids and Patrick and their dad and his girlfriend joined us. We have this great modern family where we get together as much as we can for the kids. When I travel, he’s got them, and when he travels, I have them,” Nancy says.
When she and her kids aren’t attending concerts or surfing, they’re swimming in their private pool or playing board games. During Hurricane Ian, the three spent hours playing Monopoly until the power eventually went out.
A glimmer of joy flutters across her face as she recalls this past Thanksgiving in Charlotte, NC. She and her kids drove up to enjoy go-karting, ice skating, and ice cream in the Queen City. Her kids don’t mind the traveling. They typically visit Washington D.C. with her twice a year. According to Congresswoman Mace, there’s an ice cream spot in the Navy Yard, right by the water, and her kids will beg her to ride the electric scooters there daily. “When it comes to my kids, forget the Smithsonian, Washington has scooters,” she jokes.
“How do you think your kids would describe you?” I ask.
She laughs. “Oh, when they’re not embarrassed of my profile, you mean? Probably crazy, hardworking, independent, strong-willed, and definitely very competitive. We talk a lot of smack when we play board games in this household.”
Nancy gushes about how happy it makes her to spend time with her kids. Though she admits she works way too hard and never takes enough time for herself to just relax, she knows that these are their formative years, and she doesn’t want to sacrifice a minute of it. “I intentionally book flights around my kids’ hobbies and activities so that I can attend as many sporting events – whether it’s soccer, basketball, golfing, surfing, etc. – as I can. My kids are teenagers. These are the years that will be the most memorable for them. I want to be here. I want to make them as many homecooked meals as I can.”
Nancy loves to cook. “Patrick bought me this amazing Cuisinart and a terrific pan for Christmas,” she says, eyes wide with excitement. This is the second home that she and Patrick have lived in together. The two met several years ago and shared their first date at Coda Del Pesce, a beloved Isle of Palms restaurant for Nancy.
If you can’t catch her at Coda drinking a Bellini or walking Liberty on the beach, there’s a strong chance she’s just down the street at her favorite coffee shop, Café Paname, sipping on a mocha latte. According to our Congresswoman, Café Paname is where you go when you want to eat the “best croissants in the world. They will melt in your mouth.”
The self-proclaimed foodie gleams when I pivot our conversation and ask her what her fondest beach memory is. “Easy,” she says, “the first time that Patrick told me he loved me.”
Nancy paints a beautiful image as she describes the evening that took place roughly three months into their relationship. She and Patrick were walking under the moonlight on the Sullivan’s Island beach, toes buried in the sand, when the words flowed naturally for him.
“So, he said it first?” I ask, just to confirm, to which Nancy giggles, “Well, of course!”
Patrick told Nancy he loved her on Sullivan’s Island, and just around the corner from that magical spot, he proposed during her campaign for her Congressional seat. Nancy’s staff were in on the surprise as they led her to believe they wanted footage of her knocking on doors, when behind the front door of a home on Sullivan’s hid her now-fiancé down on one knee.
“Tell me, is Patrick a romantic? That proposal sounds pretty Hallmark,” I say.
“Oh yeah, he’s my tech geek romantic for sure,” Nancy answers. “We have a lot in common in that way.”
“Your ring is stunning,” I say, admiring the handsomely sized blue topaz sparkling in a gold setting donning her ring finger. She stops petting Liberty in her lap to glance down at the ring and draw mention to the fact that this will be her third marriage and she wanted to stray from the conventional.
“My dad brought this stone home from Vietnam as a gift for my mom after his tour of duty. He fought in a huge battle on July 4th, 1968. I was born 9 years later to that day when he returned.” Nancy went on to explain that the stone was originally set in a necklace. Her mother gifted it to her on her 16th birthday since blue topaz is Nancy’s birthstone. Shortly after Patrick proposed, Nancy received permission to make the sentimental accessory into an engagement ring. She hired Jane Pope, owner of Jane Pope handmade jewelry in downtown Charleston, to make the ring that now adorns South Carolina’s first female Congresswoman.
I comment on the other jewelry Nancy is wearing – a gold necklace and a handful of beaded and wrapped bracelets – aware that most are decorated with crosses. She twists the bracelets and runs her fingers over the crosses responsively as she tells me that they are from the bookstore at Seacoast, the church she belongs to. “I love the Surratt family,” Nancy exclaims, referring to the church’s founders and owners. She tells me how Josh Surratt, son of founder Greg Surratt, gave a sermon in 2019 that completely changed the trajectory of her life.
“I was at a crossroad in my life,” Nancy says, her eyes welling with tears. “I was going through a divorce with my ex-husband and unsure whether to run for Congress. It felt like I had to choose, do I go left, or do I go right?”
“How did you know what to do?” I ask.
“Jeremiah 6:16. That was the passage Josh gave the sermon on. It’s exactly what I needed to hear to know that God was with me no matter what path I chose to take. That sermon changed my life,” she answers, still emotional over the experience years later.
Nancy explains that she’s had so many second chances in life. From dropping out of high school to getting divorced, but the thing that she’s learned through her faith is that “God can’t change us if God can’t challenge us.” She notes that we all face challenges but for her, 2019 was one of her toughest. “With the support of my family – my parents and my kids, we all got through it together. I knew right then and there what to do and I haven’t looked back since.”
It’s obvious today what decision Nancy made, as she recently celebrated her win against Annie Andrews in the November 2022 general election, securing her position as the U.S. representative for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional district. “I wish I had half the confidence and direction I have today when I was Elli’s age,” Nancy says, “I wish I knew the direction my life was going to take.” A few seconds of silence pass between us. “But I wouldn’t change a thing,” she tells me. “My path made me who I am today.”
Nancy’s relationship with faith and her church is crystal clear. She says that “attending church helps us to become better versions of ourselves, better stewards, better members of society, better members for our families, and that we all need faith and God in our lives.”
She smiles and elaborates further. “Whatever your faith is, having that basis - that community and connection and purpose in your life - makes all the difference. Everything is so divisive nowadays, not just politically speaking, but in general. Seacoast is a huge reset for me. I feel like I’m going to a Ted Talk and getting inspired to be a better person. I try to carry that message with me in my work. I try to be more intentional and put myself in other people’s shoes. Rather than – you know – honking my horn and getting road rage when someone cuts me off, I try to pull back and think, ‘okay, well maybe they’re having a bad day,’” she says.
We joke that hopefully residents on the islands can try to practice that same patience this summer on Palm Boulevard, the bridges, and surrounding island roads as tourism spikes and the traffic inevitably heightens.
As part of her New Year’s Resolutions, Nancy hopes to attend church more often, finally watch ‘Yellowstone’ (she just finished streaming ‘Only Murders in the Building’ and ‘Ozark’ with Patrick, as well as every season of ‘Stranger Things’ with her kids) and take time to relax and exercise to offset her sweet tooth.
“Peanut M&Ms are my downfall. That’s my one vice – I could eat a whole bag,” she jokes. “So, yeah, I need to exercise more and relax. I will probably be successful at one of those things but not both.”
Nancy will take two or three days off from working this month and they will be her first days off in over a year. Thankfully, Patrick is equally as much of a workaholic, and their relationship works so well because they’re both constantly motivating each other in their careers. “When you love what you do, it’s hard to put it down,” the 45-year-old single mom of two confesses.
I suggest that she schedule a massage or get her nails done to treat herself after all her hard work and she scoffs: “No, I hate spending money! All my clothing money goes to my kids for gas money now. I usually glue my nails on. The $8.99 drugstore ones. I even color my own hair. In fact,” she says, tugging at a few strands of her brunette hair, “I just missed a huge grey spot the other day and my kids were laughing at me.”
Nancy Mace knows that next year will be even more challenging for her with her career, so she truly savors every moment she gets here at the beach and being home with her kids. As for residents in the low country, Congresswoman Mace tells us that she’s constantly working at a federal level to improve the lives of the local people on the islands.
“Our roads and bridges are our biggest need in the low country,” she says as she goes on to explain that in 2022, between grants and other funding, they received over $150 million for infrastructure projects for the low country. “Any time I can get some investment and resources, even if it’s at the county level or another town, that frees up resources elsewhere.”
Nancy explains that she and her colleagues did a lot of that this year through the Water Resources Development Act. They allocated about $124 million for projects in different counties and municipalities. They also received another $15 million in grant funding for city municipalities, towns, or counties applying for grants. “We are extremely active in getting letters of support in order to get those grant applications to the top of the pile and receiving the attention and priority they deserve. That would be the number one thing we are doing to help on the local level.”
She pauses before continuing to speak. “The other thing that I learned in my first two years in Congress is that there’s such a lack of communication between the federal government, the State, and local level. I’m just the glue. I just want to improve communications on different projects so that they can get done better, faster, and more often.”
She tells me that in terms of infrastructure, she works with the Army Corp and local stakeholders to do just that, providing Folly beach as an example. Folly beach was hit hard from Hurricane Ian and a lot of the beach washed away. “Beach renourishment projects are so important. I was supportive as a state lawmaker for beach renourishment for Isle of Palms and I was there when the Governor came down and announced that as well.”
She assures me that she is on top of every beach renourishment project to make sure South Carolina has enough funding to preserve our local beaches and combat erosion. “I can’t help with local traffic on palm boulevard - I wish I could - but we do what we can where we can in terms of getting access to federal funding, because that frees up resources locally and at the state level,” she says.
Just then, Liberty barks and jumps off the couch before heading toward the front door, a gesture for Nancy to follow suit. “Oh, I know what that means,” Nancy says, and we both begin wrapping things up so her pup can relieve herself. “It seems like everyone – South Carolina, local residents, your kids, Patrick, even your dog - relies on you, huh Nancy?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.
