Politics

GOP Congresswoman wears a scarlet letter “A” – as in adultery – because people were mean to her

"Folks, this is why we shouldn't ban books."
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Rep. Nancy Mace
Rep. Nancy Mace Photo: Screenshot

Anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wore a scarlet letter “A” on a t-shirt in protest of how other Republicans are attacking her for voting out former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

“I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week that I just had last week being a woman up here and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” she told a gaggle of reporters in the Capitol. “I’m here to let the rest of the world know, the country know, I’m on the side of the people, I’m not on the side of the establishment and I’m gonna do the right thing every single time no matter the consequences because I don’t answer to anybody in D.C.”

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The scarlet letter is a reference to the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, where Hester Prynne – a Puritan in 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony – gets pregnant even though her husband is presumed lost at sea. Her punishment for adultery and for refusing to reveal the identity of the father of her child was to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. The “A” refers to adultery.

Mace was one of eight far-right House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from the speakership. She was the only woman to do so. Since Republicans have a very narrow majority in the House – and Democrats vote against Republican speakers just as Republicans vote against Democratic speakers – eight Republican votes was all it took to remove him.

Most House Republicans – even extremists like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) – voted in favor of McCarthy because removing a speaker in the middle of a session and finding a new one uses an enormous amount of time and energy that could have been spent pushing the party’s agenda. Many Republicans have been outspoken in their criticism of the eight who voted with the Democrats to remove McCarthy, with some even calling for them to be kicked out of the caucus.

Over the weekend, Mace appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation, where host Margaret Brennan asked her about her support for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to be the next speaker. Jordan has been accused by several ex-Ohio State University wrestlers of doing nothing after they complained that a team doctor was sexually abusing them. Jordan has denied the accusations.

Brennan asked why Mace is supporting Jordan when she has been “outspoken about defending victims of sexual assault.” Mace said that she is “not familiar” with the accusations against Jordan.

“Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know anything and I don’t know anything about that,” Mace said.

It’s unclear what the connection between all of this and The Scarlet Letter is. Online, some suggested that since Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been getting the most attention for removing McCarthy from the speakership since he led the charge, Mace wants more attention now. Others speculated on whether she had ever read the book at all. Some people compared her to Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

When she was campaigning for office in 2020, Mace accused her opponent, the incumbent Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC), of working with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to pass “a law requiring transgendered [sic] equality in the military, a liberal mandate that will close Parris Island.” Parris Island is a Marine Corps base in her district.

No such law was passed. Her campaign made it up. She won the election anyway.

In 2022, she accused her Democratic opponent of “child abuse” for performing gender-affirming surgery on young children. The attacks led to threats and forced her opponent to take unpaid leave from her job as a doctor at Jenkins Children’s Hospital and increase security.

“SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?! THAT’S NOT PROTECTION. THAT’S CHILD ABUSE,” text on a Mace campaign ad said, referring to her opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews.

Andrews did not perform gender-affirming surgery on minors. Mace’s campaign made that up too. And Mace won that election.

Since she got into office, though, she has been trying to appear to be a more moderate alternative to extreme Republicans, calling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) “bats**t crazy” in emojis, despite Mace’s own extreme voting record.

In 2021, she was even caught saying that the COVID-19 vaccines aren’t necessary when she spoke on Fox News and then talking about her support for the COVID-19 vaccines on CNN hours later.

Mace scored 14 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard last session, showing strong opposition to LGBTQ+ equality. She even voted against the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal anti-discrimination protections.

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