The USC chapter of Turning Point USA held an event featuring Republican South Carolina Congressional Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-01) on April 21 in the Russell House Theater.
Before the event began, Mace fielded questions from local reporters, including ones from The Post and Courier and The State, about a video she posted to X (formerly Twitter) last weekend where she was allegedly "harass[ed]" at an Ulta Beauty store in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, by a constituent.
During the video, a man asked Mace if she was going to do any more town halls for this year. Mace then responded by repeatedly telling the man to "get out of my face" and "you people on the left are crazy."
“I was the first woman in the country to say I was going to hold the line for women and protect them," Mace said at the event. "And this kind of aggressive, threatening, harassing behavior has only gotten exponentially worse as a woman."
Some event attendees disagreed with Mace's behavior in the video.
"I do think it's disgraceful the way that she talks ... I drop F-bombs, but I don't do it at work with my patients," nurse and event attendee Holly Sox said. "I never once encountered a patient in public and cussed them out."
Mace gave a speech titled "Hold the Line" where she discussed issues around gender ideology and the LGTBQIA+ community. Mace mentioned that one of her children had to fill out a dorm application for USC where there was allegedly 13 different options for gender.
Throughout her speech, Mace refused to use the correct pronouns when referring to transgender people and said she was going to continue to talk about this issue calling it "the crazy gender ideology."
In the middle of her speech when she was speaking about "holding the line" for women and fighting back against harassment, Mace faced a variety of questions from the audience from those who oppose her, including some about her views on the LGBTQIA+ community and illegal immigration.
She also discussed the bathroom bill that was filed by her at the beginning of the Congressional session after Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride became the first transgender woman elected to Congress.
“I was the first woman last year in Congress, when we had somebody who was elected who was a biological male dressed as a woman, who decided this isn’t going to happen in the United States," Mace said. "It’s not going to happen in South Carolina, it’s not going to happen anywhere if I decide to put a stop to it, so I did. I filed the bathroom bill."
A mixture of shouts of dismay and applause from the audience came when Mace stated illegal immigrants did not have due process in response to an audience question about potentially sending South Carolina residents who entered the country illegally to prison in El Salvador.
"They didn't have due process coming in, they sure as heck shouldn't get it on the way out," Mace said. "They're not citizens of the United States ... I want every single illegal who's here, I want them out, I want them gone."
The Supreme Court ruled in the 1953 case Shaughnessy v. Mezei that anyone in the United States, even those that enter through illegal means, are entitled to the due process of the law under the Eighth and 14th amendments.
After the event ended, Mace could be heard using an anti-trans slur when talking to attendee and transgender woman, Harley Hicks.
Hicks, a first-year clarinet performance student at USC and local drag performer, said Mace's use of the word was "offensive."
"I think that it's offensive to use that word. She knows better. She's an elected official," Hicks said.
Columbia resident Kimberly Cockrell offers comfort to first-year clarinet performance student Harley Hicks following a speaking event featuring Rep. Nancy Mace on Apr. 21, 2025. Hicks alleged that Mace had directed an anti-trans slur at her when confronting the representative.
Other attendees also disagreed with Mace's remarks tonight about the LGBTQIA+ community.
“What she did tonight was disgusting … She was yelling at a human being that she perceives to be something and calling them a slur that has to do with the LGBTQIA+ community. That is disgusting," attendee and Columbia local Kimberly Cockrell said.
While some event attendees were vocally against Mace, others in attendance said the people shouting and yelling questions were disrespectful.
“These people are rude. They’re getting in people’s faces. They’re yelling," President of USC's chapter of Uncensored America Brendan Connors said. "They’re not actually representing their side very well, and it doesn’t make the community look good when a person comes who is trying to be respectful and have a dialogue with people … and you have these people who just yell.”
Some of those who attended the event said that Mace was not adequately serving her constituents by appearing at USC.
“(It) makes me feel like she had no reason to be here except that she’s making a run for governor, and that’s political," attendee and USC alum Wade Fulmer said. "That’s not serving the people when you’re running for office and you’re not telling the truth and you’re just here for a photo op."