The Real Reason GOP Will Lose Midterms That No One Wants to Admit | Nancy Mace

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Real Reason GOP Will Lose Midterms That No One Wants to Admit"

The Rubin Report
Host: Dave Rubin
Guest: Rep. Nancy Mace (South Carolina)
Date: December 18, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this engaging conversation, Dave Rubin sits down with South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace to dissect the looming challenges facing the GOP in upcoming midterm elections. They explore the party’s legislative stagnation, internal divisions, missed opportunities, and the broader cultural and political divides shaping America. Mace offers frank insights into why she believes Republicans risk a "bloodbath" at the polls, what’s unique about South Carolina, the strengths and weaknesses of federalism, and how honest, unflinching leadership could change the party’s fate.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Lack of Legislative Productivity: A GOP Weakness

Time: 02:09–04:15

• Low Bill Passage Rate:
  Mace laments the tiny fraction (about 5%) of bills that pass the House, with even fewer making it through the Senate.

  "Only about 5% of bills that have been filed so far this year have passed out of the House... If you look at the previous administration... we're behind, significantly behind." — Nancy Mace (02:12)

• Stalled Trump Agenda:
  Mace describes her bill to deport violent illegal aliens—passed in the House but stuck in the Senate—as emblematic of the GOP’s inability to push through a conservative agenda.

  "So it's just, what are we doing if we're not fulfilling the President's agenda?" — Nancy Mace (03:12)

2. Fear of Losing vs. Courageous Leadership

Time: 04:15–05:16

• Contrast with Democrats:
  Mace draws a stark parallel to how Nancy Pelosi aggressively passed progressive legislation, regardless of potential backlash, suggesting the GOP lacks similar conviction.

  "What Nancy Pelosi did...she was ruthless and she knew that the Speaker's gavel was temporary...They shoved through the most progressive ideological policies known to man... We're not, we don't have that same thing." — Nancy Mace (04:28)

• Moderation as a Liability:
  She criticizes the tendency to "moderate to the left" out of fear rather than standing firm on conservative principles.

  "We get elected and we get scared of losing the election. So we moderate to the left trying to keep independents and moderates. But you don't, I don't think we understand as a party that conservatives can win." — Nancy Mace (04:48)

3. Leadership Gaps and Missed Opportunities

Time: 05:16–05:53

• Blame on Congressional Leadership:
  Mace emphasizes that lack of action isn’t Trump's fault but stems from leadership failings in the House and Senate.

  "The President's doing phenomenal...I believe that Senate leadership...can just sit there for months or years on end and not do anything...I'm frustrated by what I see going on here." — Nancy Mace (05:22-05:51)

4. South Carolina Snapshot: Ground-Level Perspective

Time: 05:53–07:44

• State Identity and Challenges:
  As the fastest growing state in the US, South Carolina is seeing an influx of newcomers, but also faces ideological battles. Mace recounts an incident exposing excessive gender options on a college form, and her personal intervention.

  "At one point we had a college university, had like a 15 gender form and male and female weren't two of the options. So I called the president of the college, I left the message, I recorded it, put it on X. Within three hours it was taken down." — Nancy Mace (06:42)

• High Taxes & Reform Agenda:
  Mace lays out her plan to reduce the state’s high income tax rate.

  "I've got a plan to reduce that to zero. But our state needs to become a little more competitive." — Nancy Mace (07:28)

5. Federalism: Unity or Further Division?

Time: 07:44–08:50

• Diverging State Paths:
  Rubin questions if states will simply go their "separate ways." Mace stresses federal supremacy on issues like immigration but supports states’ rights otherwise.

  "If the president says we're deporting illegal aliens, you don't get the right to say no to that because that's a federal issue and there's supremacy. Federal supremacy." — Nancy Mace (08:15)

• Accountability for Sanctuary Jurisdictions:
  She advocates for financial penalties (defunding) for cities and states refusing to cooperate with federal law.

  "If you're a blue city, a blue mayor, a blue governor, and you aren't following federal law, we shouldn't give you a dime." — Nancy Mace (08:39)

6. Evaluating Trump’s Performance and Barriers

Time: 10:25–11:12

• Trump Meeting Expectations:
  Mace is effusive about Trump’s leadership, stating he has done “everything” asked.

  "I wake up every day and I just thank God for Donald Trump because he's doing everything we asked him to do." — Nancy Mace (10:42)

• Structural Obstacles:
  Mace argues that it’s not Trump, but rather legislative bottlenecks and leadership inertia—especially with temporary appointments being blocked—that stall progress.

7. State-Level Support for Federal Policy

Time: 11:12–12:39

• What More Can Governors Do?
  Mace points to Governor DeSantis as a model for working with ICE, and suggests governors and local officials can actively support Trump’s deportation agenda.

  "Governors could deputize local agents, local deputies to help ICE...There's more that we all could be doing to support his agenda." — Nancy Mace (11:22)

• Time is Short:
  Mace warns that bureaucratic delays and lack of urgency could doom Republican prospects in the midterms.

8. Blunt Assessment of the Democratic Party and Cultural Divides

Time: 12:39–15:24

• Mental Illness Claims:
  Mace does not mince words, attributing leftist ideology and behavior to "mental illness."

  "I think that there is a real mental illness on the left side of the aisle. That's the only way I can explain some of the behavior that's happening." — Nancy Mace (12:51)

• Criticism of Gender & Trans Issues:
  She is sharply critical of Democratic stances on women’s spaces, transgender rights, and youth medical transitions, calling them “not normal.”

  "You're so pro woman, you want to take away women's rights...anybody that...wants to castrate a kid because that's what he feels like that day...that is normal. That's not normal." — Nancy Mace (13:38)

• Family Divides and “TDS”:
  Mace shares that disagreements over Trump (“Trump Derangement Syndrome”) have fractured even her own family gatherings.

  "Those family members, they don't come to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner anymore. That's how bad it's gotten." — Nancy Mace (15:10)

9. A Path to GOP Victory: Hard Work & Honesty

Time: 15:25–17:01

• Formula for Winning:
  Mace argues Republicans shouldn’t shy away from bold conservative action or candor, claiming it wins support—including from independents.

  "If we're honest, we work hard, deliver on Trump's agenda, we're going to win overwhelmingly." — Nancy Mace (16:33)

• Personal Example:
  She touts her 2020 win (plus one point) and an 18-point victory four years later as proof that outspoken conservatism can perform, even in swing districts.

  "As a conservative, I won in 2020 by one point. And four years later...I won by 18 points...It was because...the way that I'm very honest in the way that I talk about issues." — Nancy Mace (15:44)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Legislative Failure:
  "We're about to see a bloodbath in the House, which means we're going to be completely neutered a year from now and not be able to get a conservative Trump agenda out." — Nancy Mace (03:38)
• On Imitating Pelosi’s Tactics:
  "She was ruthless and she knew that the Speaker's gavel was temporary...They shoved through the most progressive ideological policies known to man." — Nancy Mace (04:30)
• On Democratic Behavior:
  "There is a lot of mental illness within the Democrat Party. That's the only way I can explain some of the transgender ideology." — Nancy Mace (13:07)
• On Political Courage:
  "It's going to take courage, and it's going to take not being afraid of moderates or the left or independents." — Nancy Mace (15:38)
• On Her Own District:
  "I took my district from a plus 1R to a plus 18R...it was because of the way that I work hard and the way that I'm very honest in the way that I talk about issues." — Nancy Mace (15:46)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:09 — Mace on Congressional dysfunction and legislative stalemate
• 04:24 — “Bloodbath” prediction and lessons from Pelosi’s leadership
• 06:06 — South Carolina’s growth and battles with “woke” ideology
• 08:11 — Federalism and state divergence in policy
• 10:25 — Trump’s performance and what more can be done
• 12:49 — The “mental illness” claim about the left
• 15:36 — Mace’s blueprint for GOP victory and her personal electoral success

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Closing Tone & Takeaway

Nancy Mace delivers a candid, sometimes bracing, assessment of the state of the GOP, Congressional inertia, and America’s political divide. She advocates for bold, unapologetic conservatism and hard work as the only path to victory, warning that timidity and inaction will spell certain defeat. The episode is marked by Mace’s directness, eschewing political niceties for raw opinion—a tone very much in line with The Rubin Report’s commitment to “real conversations, real news.”

Transcript

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[Reuben]

All right, South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace. We already talked about hair for three minutes. You want to just do that on camera or should we.

[Nancy Mace]

Should we talk about my hair loss and when you recommend I do? Sure.

[Reuben]

Yes. We both have struggled with some alopecia stuff. We'll get you. We'll get you right. The hair looks great, though.

[Nancy Mace]

Thank. Thank you.

[Reuben]

All right. I'm here in D.C. i come from Florida. It's freezing here. Everyone's complaining about politics, but you've got a smile on your face. What's. What's going on? Is that a South Carolina smile?

[Nancy Mace]

Yeah, it is. It's a Southern smile.

[Reuben]

Yeah.

[Nancy Mace]

No, I mean, this place is frustrating because I. And I wrote about this in the New York Times recently about the lack of, I think, productivity. You know, only about 5% of bills that have been filed so far this year have passed out of the House. And if you look numerically, so far this year, the President has signed about 57 pieces of legislation into law. Great start. If you look at the previous administration and the productivity of the leadership, both in the House and the Senate over the last four years, we're behind, significantly behind. And a number of us, at least in the House, once your bills do get passed out of the house, only about 5% so far this year, they then get stuck in the Senate. Like, I have a bill right now that passed out of the House almost a year ago, and it was to deport the most violent illegal aliens in the country, the rapists, the murderers, the pedophiles. And it is part of the President's agenda to get those bad folks out of our country got out of the House, sits in the Senate, doesn't go anywhere. And so it's just, what are we doing if we're not fulfilling the President's agenda?

[Reuben]

So since that sort of is the theme amongst everyone that I'm talking about. So like, a bill like that, like, what is the hang up?

[Nancy Mace]

I mean, it's a great bill. It's one of the, I mean, it was, I think the, it was one of 12 bills in the House original House rules package, the first package that came out of the House when the President got elected. So I'm confused by the holdup while why there are people that want to hold up the President's agenda, that want to hold up and not codify President Trump's executive orders. This is some of the best work we've done. We have the opportunity of a lifetime. We're about to see a bloodbath in the House, which means we're going to be completely neutered a year from now and not be able to get a conservative Trump agenda out of the House in a year. We may or may not keep the Senate. So this is, to me, this is. We have a historic time, a historic moment and opportunity ahead of us. So we're stifling it.

[Reuben]

So I assume you want the Republicans to go ahead with the nuclear option and just do what they've got to do right now, because you see no way around a big loss coming in November.

[Nancy Mace]

We're going to see the House, we're going to lose the House, and it will be a bloodbath and we will have earned it because of the lack of productive work fulfilling the conservative agenda. What Nancy Pelosi did and I Vietnam disagree on everything. She was ruthless and she knew that the Speaker's gavel was temporary and that any moment it could be gone. And so they shoved through the most progressive ideological policies known to man on this earth. They shoved that through and got it to Biden's desk to be signed. And we're not, we don't have that same thing. We get elected and we get scared of losing the election. So we moderate to the left trying to keep independents and moderates. But you don't, I don't think we understand as a party that conservatives can win. I mean, Donald Trump won in a landslide on a massive conservative agenda.

[Reuben]

So what do you think Mike Johnson's missing there then? Cuz I assume you don't think it's Trump that's not leading properly on this.

[Nancy Mace]

Oh, the President's doing phenomenal. I mean, this is the best president in my lifetime in history. He's been phenomenal so far. And it's not just the House, it's also the Senate. I believe that Senate leadership, I mean, they can just sit there for months or years on end and not do anything. And oftentimes they do. They're the quote, deliberative body, but they're also the least productive and they've taken the purse strings from the House with also. So I am frustrated by what I see going on here because we have the opportunity of a lifetime and we're squandering it. We're better than this.

[Reuben]

What should we know about South Carolina that we don't know? I feel like South Carolina is probably, it's like in those few states that somehow we don't talk about nationally, maybe that's good actually, but we don't talk much about.

[Nancy Mace]

Our nickname is the Palmetto State and we've got about just over 5, 5.5 million people. We're actually the fastest growing state in the country by population. So everybody from New York, California, Ohio, they're all moving to South Carolina unless they went to Austin, Texas first, or Miami, Florida, because they.

[Reuben]

Florida's about to be full Cali to Miami, right?

[Nancy Mace]

Yeah. So after Florida fills up, they're going to come to South Carolina. We have great weather, we have great golf, we have great food. In Bev, you know, we have a great beautiful state. I mean, our beaches are lined with gold, beautiful oak trees. We have conservation matters. So you see a lot of parks and a lot of greenery and a lot of historic areas, you know, and so it's a, it's a beautiful state where my family is from and has been there for a very long time. We're very fast growing, but also, you know, you know, we've, we're a Republican run state, but we've been taken over by some of the woke ideology that we see in our schools. I mean I've, I've exposed like at one point we had a college university, had like a 15 gender form and male and female weren't two of the options. And so I called the president of the college, I left the message, I recorded it, put it on X. Within three hours it was taken down. Because sometimes that's just the way you have to operate. If you write a strongly worded letter, nothing happens. We also have one of the highest state income tax rates in the southeast at 6.2 to 6%. Ish. And I've got a plan to reduce that to zero. But our state needs to become a little more competitive and I look forward to trying to make that happen for the state of South Carolina.

[Reuben]

Do you sense in general that the states are just going to keep going their separate ways? That that federalism will sort of be the saving grace of everything here? That if the federal government just gets too big or if the blue states continue to just go too big? Well, it continues. Continues, I said. But yeah, and that if the blue states just continue to go down that path, that, that the states will just, yes, we will be the United States of America, but we're just going to just do things very, very differently and that's okay.

[Nancy Mace]

Well, that's, that's what federalism is. Right? Every state is different. So states do have certain inalienable rights to protect their way of life and the way that they operate and do business. But there is a balance. I mean, if the president says we're deporting illegal aliens, you don't get the right to say no to that because that's a federal issue and there's supremacy. Federal supremacy.

[Reuben]

So what would you like when, when a guy like Mamdani, who's not even sworn in yet, is already saying we're not going to work with ice, or I think Pritzker has said, you know, they're not going to work with ICE.

[Nancy Mace]

And, or defund those, defund those cities in those states, if you're a blue city, a blue mayor, a blue governor, and you aren't following federal law, we shouldn't give you a dime. Yeah, that's what I would do.

[Reuben]

Are there, are there, do you know, even, are there criminal charges that you can, can you prosecute them at that point too? Because it is, as I understand that they actually are Breaking federal law.

[Nancy Mace]

I'm sure that there are that, like the oversight committee could refer criminal charges to doj, but I think, and no one's going to prosecute over that, let's be honest. But the power is in the money. The power is in the purse strings. The power in the way that we can manage that kind of illegal behavior is by taking the money away. You want to bankrupt your state, go for it. Do it on your own dime. But you're not doing it on the federal government's time.

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[Nancy Mace]

What hasn't he done? He's done like everything.

[Reuben]

Well, it's interesting because there's a sort of like low level depression I'm seeing on the right right now. And it's like, man, the guy's doing everything possible. I don't end with an incredible cabinet. It doesn't mean everything's perfect.

[Nancy Mace]

I don't think he could do anything more. I mean, he's literally. You know, I wake up every day and I just thank God for Donald Trump because he's doing everything we asked him to do. My biggest.

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[Nancy Mace]

With prime, though, I mean, he's, you know, he's doing. But there are some things that some governors could do. We could follow the lead of Governor DeSantis, for example, and use facilities like, I know in South Carolina, I've identified over 400 bed spaces at different facilities where we could help increase if we had the capacity, the, the, the ICE agents, because he needs to hire more. I mean, that's a product of. He's only been in office for a year. But there are things that governors could do, mayors could do. The governor of South Carolina could deputize local agents, local deputies to help ice. I mean, there are different things we all could do at the state and local level to help the president. I don't think he's doing everything perfectly, ever doing everything right. But it's other people and other leadership, whether it's leadership in the Senate and the House, governors, mayors, et cetera. There's more that we all could be doing to support his agenda. An example that President Trump was caught on the hot mic last week. He was lamenting that his temporarily appointed attorney generals were going to expire, and so he would not have the attorney generals that he has handpicked for those positions because they haven't been confirmed. Well, that off the top of the list is like, why aren't we doing that right now? So I see the machine and is slowing him down. And that's where I think the problem is for us, particularly in the midterms. We're about to run out of time. You know, March 1st, April 1st gets here. We're out of time.

[Reuben]

I know it's the easiest thing to ask, but what do you make of what's going on on the other side of the aisle? Like, what is happening with this Democrat Party?

[Nancy Mace]

It's absolutely sheer lunacy. And I think that there is a real mental illness on the left side of the aisle. That's the only way I can explain some of the behavior that's happening. So I'm a member who gets out there. I'm pretty public. I'm pretty brazen. I don't have a filter, which sometimes gets me.

[Reuben]

You do have your viral moments, but.

[Nancy Mace]

It'S not, it's not, it's not on purpose. I have. I don't understand social nuances as better as other people. And so I will just say things that are from my heart and they're honest. And I think that's really lacking. I think sometimes people think too hard about it. But the left side of the aisle, I do believe that There is a lot of mental illness within the Democrat Party. That's the only way I can explain some of the transgender ideology. You're so pro woman, you want to take away women's rights. You're so pro underage girls, you want a man in the bathroom with them in the shower, next to them in the locker room. You're so pro woman, you want. Want men and women's sports and anybody that. That wants to castrate a kid because that's what he feels like that day because you fed him some kind of nasty ideology or. Or sent them to a tran drag show when they were in, you know, kindergarten, and now they're mentally just crazy. But, like, that is normal. That's not normal.

[Reuben]

Yeah.

[Nancy Mace]

And just the other day yesterday, we saw Pam Bondi and Cash Patel, and the FBI announced that they thwarted a terrorist attack from a pro Palestinian group, Turtle something in California. And these people are running around with. With things on their head, Palestinian, pro Hamas crap that looks like they're supposed to be in Gaza or in Iraq or Iran. Like, these are like, are they domestic terrorists now? Like, that's the thing. It's crazy to me. Well, how do you explain it?

[Reuben]

No, I think mental disorder is right. I actually say that on my show all the time. It was nice to hear you say it, because most politicians won't go that far. But I.

[Nancy Mace]

But I don't think it's going far. I think that that's what I'm seeing. I mean, and especially when you look at people. Most of my family is conservative, but we got a few that didn't vote for the president. I'm like, man, you really got tds. You have Trump derangement syndrome. And those family members, they don't come to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner anymore. That's how bad it's gotten.

[Reuben]

Yeah, well, Trump derangement syndrome, I actually believe will be looked at as a mental. Mental condition.

[Nancy Mace]

It's a real illness. I think there's a mds. I do think there's MACE derangement syndrome also, by the way.

[Reuben]

Yeah.

[Nancy Mace]

So.

[Reuben]

All right, so just paint me the positive vision of some way that this doesn't end horribly next November, and then Trump ends up lame duck, and then we hand this thing to Gavin Newsom. Give me some positive vision.

[Nancy Mace]

If you all of a sudden triple the amount of work we're doing up here on the Hill, we can pull it off, but it's going to take courage, and it's going to take not being afraid of moderates or the left or independents. Now what the party doesn't realize. And I come from a very independent district. And as a conservative, I won in 2020 by one point. And four years later, last year, a year ago, I won by 18 points. I took my district from a plus 1R to a plus 18R. It wasn't because of redistricting. My district only got one point better two years ago. It was because of the way that I work hard and the way that I'm very honest in the way that I talk about issues. I won a blue county that Kamala Harris won by 11 points. I also won obviously by a much smaller margin than the portion that I had it. But. And I'm someone who's been very vocal, very outspoken on conservative issues, on women's issues. And what people don't realize, that independents are with us, independents are with Donald Trump. They overwhelmingly voted for him in the election. And we don't need to be afraid of our own shadow. If we're honest, we work hard, deliver on Trump's agenda, we're going to win overwhelmingly. It's what he just, he just did the impossible. And we're ignoring his successes to the detriment and what could be a huge failure. But if we follow his lead, there's nothing that can stop us.

[Reuben]

I'm with you.

[Nancy Mace]

Yeah. Thank you so much.

[Reuben]

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