Nancy Mace yells 'F**k you!' at man she assumes is gay for asking her a question in an Ulta store

A simple question from a South Carolina voter about whether their congresswoman would hold any more town halls this year prompted a profanity-laced tirade, not from a fellow shopper but U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace. And now, the Republican lawmaker is once again painting herself as the victim while using the encounter to demean LGBTQ+ people.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

Over the weekend, Mace posted a video she filmed in the skincare aisle of a South Carolina Ulta store, showing her berating a man she assumes is gay who had asked about her public schedule. The man stood at a comfortable distance and spoke in a measured tone. Mace, however, quickly escalated the interaction, invoking LGBTQ+ issues unprompted, shouting obscenities, and accusing the man of harassment. For public figures like Mace, being approached in public by a constituent isn't unusual. It’s part of the job she ran for.

Related: Transgender woman terrorized after South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace mocks her online

“Some unhinged lunatic, a man, wearing daisy dukes, at a makeup store, got in my face today,” Mace wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday. “Dems are nuts. So I went off — and I won’t be backing down.”

The video, viewed over 2.3 million times on X alone, tells a different story.

The man asked whether Mace would be holding any more town halls. Rather than answer, Mace veered off-topic: “I voted for gay marriage twice.” When he asked what that had to do with him, she replied, “It has everything to do with you.”

Trending stories

Watching JD Vance's motorcade get ruthlessly roasted will recharge your soul

Iconic 'Drag Race' season 13 queen announces drag hiatus

Wilderness, woods, and Wigstock: Drag icons light up the Catskills

1985: the year the AIDS crisis finally broke through the silence

Carlos King wants Monique Samuels & Gizelle Bryant to hash out their feud on 'RHOP'

Celebrated queer poet Andrea Gibson dead at 49

'King of Drag’s Pressure K says drag is the 'cheat code' for defeating their trauma (exclusive)

Trump admin guts $258 million in funding for HIV vaccine research

Out and About with Christian Cooper

11 lesbian & sapphic reality dating shows & where to watch them

21 'Drag Race' queens who competed in other reality shows

Gays went feral at an iconic Pride celebration in Pensacola, Florida

Emmy 2025 nominations: LGBTQ+ nominees to root for

How climate disasters hurt mental health in young people

Electric Forest is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community

Checking out: nhow London, the city’s coolest hotel

VIDEO: A man living with HIV discusses his journey to fatherhood

Elon Musk uses burner accounts on X, doesn’t fact-check: report

5 lesbian power couples who play on rival sports teams

France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution

RuPaul breaks all-time Emmys record with 10th nomination for Reality TV Host

All 6 rogue Mississippi cops got long prison sentences in 'Goon Squad' torture of 2 Black men

This HIV Long-Term Survivor Day, listen to this leader from God's Love, We Deliver

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules to save free access to preventive care, including PrEP

Joe Biden has tied the record for most LGBTQ+ judges confirmed in federal courts

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8

“Do you think everything about me has to do with gay marriage?” he asked. “That’s your first stance when speaking with me?”

“Absolutely,” Mace responded.

“You couldn’t have a humane conversation with me?” he said.

Mace then declared, “People on the left are absolutely f***ing crazy.” At that, the man turned to walk away — only for Mace to yell, “F**k you!”

Appearing stunned, the man turned back. “You say ‘f**k me’? You’re going to be voted out so fast this year. I can’t wait for you to f***ing—”

“I’m not,” Mace interrupted. “I won by so much.”

“You’re a disgrace to this state. That’s what you are,” he said. “I asked you a simple question, and you just go on this tirade and tell me ‘f**k you.’”

“Yeah. F**k you,” Mace repeated. “Get out of my face.”

“F**k you,” he replied.

“Get out of my face,” she said again as he was not near her.

“What’s your name?” Mace demanded again.

“You’re a nasty bitch,” the man shot back, “That’s my name.”

“You say ‘f**k me’?” he asked. “The first thing you’re going to say to me is ‘f**k me’ for asking you a question?”

“Yep. I sure did,” she said.

“Get the f**k out of my face,” she added.

“You couldn’t take me on, baby,” Mace finished. “Stay the f**k away from me.”

The constituent in the video, Ely Murray-Quick, later identified himself on Facebook and offered his account of the encounter, along with a video from his perspective. “We took a trip to Ulta today and ran into none other than Nancy Mace — arguably one of the biggest embarrassments in modern South Carolina politics,” he wrote. Murray-Quick said, and the video shows, that he asked a simple question about future town halls and was stunned when Mace immediately grew defensive, pivoting to her record on gay marriage as if one vote could wipe away her broader anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

“Let’s be clear: one ‘yay’ vote doesn’t undo the damage of her broader political choices,” he added, pointing to Mace’s support for bans on gender-affirming care, her failure to advocate for real protections for the LGBTQ+ community, and her vote against the Inflation Reduction Act. “To my trans friends and especially the trans employees at Ulta — people Nancy seems perfectly happy to shop near but not stand up for — I want you to know this: these people will not prevail. I will fight for your rights and dignity for as long as I’m able.”

He also clarified that while he did respond to Mace’s cursing in kind, he stood by the exchange. “I won’t apologize for speaking up or for publicly asking a politician to do her job.”

The outburst fits a broader pattern for Mace, who has increasingly adopted the combative, bullying persona modeled by far-right colleagues like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert — Republican figures known for their bigoted language toward LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups.

Mace has used her platform repeatedly to attack LGBTQ+ people while casting herself as under siege. In December, she falsely accused transgender foster care advocate James McIntyre of assaulting her with a handshake during a Capitol Hill event. He was arrested, but prosecutors dropped the case after eyewitness accounts contradicted Mace’s claims.

Related: Charges dropped against trans advocate falsely accused of assault by Nancy Mace for giving her a firm handshake

In March, Mace used her official congressional social media account to publicly mock a young transgender woman named Sabre, posting “Estrogen doesn’t love you” in response to Sabre’s transition photos. The result was an explosion of transphobic abuse, including doxxing attempts and death threats.

And in January, Mace and Boebert followed a cisgender woman into a Capitol restroom, mistakenly believing she was Delaware U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress. Boebert later apologized. Mace stayed silent, then tweeted her opposition to gender-neutral bathrooms.

This latest incident drew immediate backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates and civil rights organizations. Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf, who has previously confronted Mace’s rhetoric, posted on X: “You, who ran to be a public figure, cussed a guy out because he asked if you’re having any more town halls this year. At some point, are you not embarrassed by your own behavior?”

Republican lawmakers nationwide have been encouraged by party leadership to avoid hosting town hall events because of scenes in which constituents have expressed outrage over what they see as a fascist takeover of the United States by Donald Trump. Few Republicans held in-person town halls during the current congressional recess, and those who did — like Mace allies Greene and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley — often faced anger over Trump’s sweeping executive actions. Greene restricted questions to written submissions and had multiple protesters arrested and shocked with a stun gun during her heavily scripted event in Georgia.

Related: Lauren Boebert & Nancy Mace confront woman they thought was trans in ‘predictable’ Capitol bathroom incident

Despite her combative reputation, Mace secured reelection in November 2024, defeating Democrat Michael Moore to win a third term representing South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. Her margin improved after GOP-led redistricting stripped Democratic-leaning precincts from the district. She celebrated her win by warning, “Anyone who dare takes a shot at me — you better not miss.”

The Advocate reached out to Mace’s office for comment on her decision to curse at a constituent, why she invoked his sexuality in response to a town hall question, and whether LGBTQ+ people in her district should expect public humiliation for engaging their representative. As of publication, her office had not responded.