Nancy Mace Called Herself a ‘New Voice’ for the G.O.P. Then She Pivoted.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Representative Nancy Mace had conscionable delivered the benignant of red-meat remarks that would ordinarily thrill the Republican voters successful attendance present connected a caller sweltering evening, casually comparing wide Democrats to terrorists — the “Hamas squad,” she called them — and railing against their “socialist” spending plans.

But asked to springiness an appraisal of her congresswoman, Mara Brockbank, a erstwhile person of the Charleston County Republican Party who previously endorsed Ms. Mace, was little than enthusiastic.

“I didn’t similar that she back-stabbed Trump,” Ms. Brockbank said. “We person to recognize that she got successful due to the fact that of Trump. Even if you bash person thing against your leaders, support them to yourself.”

Ms. Brockbank was referring to Ms. Mace’s archetypal weeks successful bureau instantly aft the Jan. 6 riot, arsenic the stench of teardrop state lingered successful the halls of the Capitol and some apical Republicans were softly weighing a interruption with President Donald J. Trump. Ms. Mace, a freshman congresswoman, placed herself astatine the forefront of a radical of Republicans denouncing Mr. Trump’s lies of a stolen predetermination that had fueled the battle and appeared to beryllium establishing herself arsenic a compelling caller dependable urging her enactment to alteration its ways.

But these days, arsenic Republicans successful Congress person made it wide that they person nary volition of turning against Mr. Trump, Ms. Mace has softly backpedaled into the party’s fold. Having erstwhile fixed much than a twelve interviews successful a azygous time to condemn Mr. Trump’s corrosive power connected the party, Ms. Mace present studiously avoids the subject, seldom if ever mentioning his sanction and saying it is clip for Republicans to “stop warring with each different successful public.”

After mounting herself isolated from her enactment during her archetypal week successful bureau by opposing its effort to overturn President Biden’s victory, Ms. Mace has swung backmost into line. She joined the immense bulk of Republicans successful voting to oust Representative Liz Cheney from enactment for denouncing Mr. Trump and his predetermination lies. She besides voted against forming an autarkic bipartisan commission to analyse the Capitol riot.

And alternatively than continuing to situation enactment orthodoxy, Ms. Mace has leaned successful to the astir combative Republican talking points, castigating Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the apical wellness authoritative who is simply a favourite boogeyman of the right, accusing Democrats of forcing captious contention mentation connected children, and publically feuding with progressives.

Her pivot helps explicate wherefore the Republican Party’s clasp of Mr. Trump and his marque of authorities is much implicit than ever. It is not lone the tiny but vocal radical of hard-right loyalists of the erstwhile president who are driving the alliance, but besides the scores of rank-and-file Republicans — adjacent those who whitethorn disagree with him, arsenic Ms. Mace has — who person decided it is excessively perilous to openly situation him.

“She’s a small spot similar a caller sailor; she tried to get her oversea legs, but she’s besides looking retired implicit the horizon, and what she saw was a tempest coming successful from the right,” said Chip Felkel, a seasoned Republican strategist successful South Carolina. “So she instantly started paddling successful different direction. The occupation is, is that everything you accidental and do, there’s a grounds of it.”

Ms. Mace declined done a spokeswoman to beryllium made disposable for an interview, but said successful a connection that “you tin beryllium blimpish and you tin beryllium a Republican and beryllium pissed disconnected and vocal astir what happened connected Jan. 6.” (Ms. Mace’s astir caller statements regarding the Capitol onslaught person been explanations of wherefore she opposed commissions to analyse it.)

“You tin hold with Donald Trump’s policies and beryllium pissed disconnected astir what happened connected Jan. 6,” Ms. Mace said. “You tin deliberation Pelosi is putting connected a sideshow with the Jan. 6 committee and inactive beryllium pissed disconnected astir Jan. 6. These things are not mutually exclusive.”

Ms. Mace is facing a peculiarly hard governmental dynamic successful her plaything territory centered successful Charleston, which she won narrowly past twelvemonth erstwhile she defeated Joe Cunningham, a Democrat. Her contiguous occupation is regaining the spot of the rock-ribbed conservatives who marque up her base. It is each the much pressing due to the fact that governmental observers expect Republicans to effort to redraw Ms. Mace’s territory to go much conservative, and imaginable superior challengers inactive person a twelvemonth to determine whether to propulsion their hats successful the ring.

Her predicament bubbled beneath the aboveground connected a caller evening present astatine a pork-themed “End Washington Waste” reception overlooking the Charleston Harbor and the docked Yorktown, a decommissioned Navy craft carrier. Voters signed the hocks of a insubstantial pig urging Democrats to chopped extraneous spending from the infrastructure measure and exchanged printed-out “Biden bucks” for cocktails, arsenic immoderate reflected connected Ms. Mace’s balancing act.

Francis and Clea Sherman, a joined mates who braved the 90-degree vigor to attend, praised her for being “unafraid to talk out” and “tackling pugnacious issues.”

“We perfectly deliberation that is the astir horrifying happening — not to ever happen, but surely 1 of them,” Ms. Sherman said of the Capitol breach, rapidly adding that she was conscionable arsenic outraged by radical justness protests astir the state that had grown violent. “All those riots that went on successful each those cities — they’ve got to stop.”

Mr. Sherman, a Korean War veteran, nodded along. “It was a shame it had to happen,” helium said of the Jan. 6 assault, adding that helium utilized to “get precise upset” with immoderate of Mr. Trump’s remarks.

But the erstwhile president had been effective, helium said. “In my full beingness I’ve ne'er been capable to spot idiosyncratic execute truthful much,” Mr. Sherman added, citing debased unemployment rates and a beardown economy. “The bottommost enactment was, did helium get the occupation done?”

Penny Ford, a Mount Pleasant nonmigratory who attended the lawsuit with her husband, Jim Ford, gave a much grudging assessment, explaining that they had winced astatine Ms. Mace’s comments astir the erstwhile president. Still, she said, the congresswoman was “the champion we person astatine the moment.”

Ms. Ford said they would similar to beryllium represented by idiosyncratic similar Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio — a staunch Trump loyalist who helped plan the situation to Mr. Biden’s election successful the House — oregon Senator Ted Cruz of Texas — who led the effort to invalidate it successful the Senate — and said they would see voting against Ms. Mace adjacent twelvemonth “if I had a prime for idiosyncratic else.”

The archetypal pistillate to postgraduate from the Citadel, Ms. Mace based her winning 2020 run connected her up-from-the-bootstraps biography, detailing her travel from scrappy Waffle House waitress to statehouse representative. She bested Mr. Cunningham, who had been the archetypal Democrat to clasp the spot successful astir 4 decades, by conscionable implicit a percent point.

On the run trail, Ms. Mace walked a cautious line, balancing her libertarian streak with a much pragmatic approach, playing up a past of “speaking up against members” of her ain enactment and “reaching crossed the aisle.”

And successful the days aft the Jan. 6 attack, she was unsparing successful her language. What was necessary, Ms. Mace said then, was thing abbreviated of a broad rebuilding of the party. It was a clip for Republicans to beryllium honorable with their voters, she said: “Regardless of the governmental consequences, I’m going to archer the truth.”

She could not enactment silent, Ms. Mace insisted.

“This is simply a infinitesimal successful history, a turning constituent wherever due to the fact that of my passionateness for our country, for our Constitution, for the aboriginal of my children — I don’t person that enactment anymore,” she said successful an interrogation the time aft the attack. “I tin prime up the mantle and effort to pb america retired of this crisis, oregon I tin beryllium idly by and ticker our state spell to waste. And I garbage to bash the latter.”

Less than a week later, her code abruptly changed. After joining Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, successful a bipartisan petition to supply legislature unit aides with much resources to header with the “trauma” of the Jan. 6 attack, she criticized her workfellow for recounting however she feared that rioters had breached into her bureau building.

“No insurrectionists stormed our hallway,” Ms. Mace wrote connected Twitter, touching disconnected a heated back-and-forth.

She past fund-raised disconnected the feud, arguing that “the actions of the out-of-control mob who forced their mode into the Capitol” were “terrifying” and “immediately condemned by the near and right,” but that “the left,” peculiarly Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, had “run chaotic due to the fact that they volition ne'er fto a situation spell to waste.”

More recently, erstwhile she voted against the enactment of the projected bipartisan Jan. 6 inquiry, Ms. Mace called the endeavor a “partisan, duplicate effort by Speaker Pelosi to disagreement our nation.”

And aft initially refusing to archer reporters whether she voted to oust Ms. Cheney, of Wyoming, from her No. 3 enactment post, Ms. Mace’s squad issued a statement affirming that she had, saying that Republicans “should beryllium moving unneurotic and not against 1 different during immoderate of the astir superior socialist challenges our federation has ever faced.”

Ms. Mace has, successful immoderate ways, retained her autarkic streak. She verbally slapped down Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, for comparing disguise mandates to Nazism. And she has continued to enactment crossed the aisle with Democrats connected issues similar statesmanlike warfare powers and cybersecurity.

Her still-frequent appearances connected television, though — present mostly connected a assortment of Fox News shows, arsenic good arsenic the blimpish networks OAN and Newsmax — thin to instrumentality to immoderate of the party’s astir well-tread governmental messages. In a caller interrogation connected Fox News, she asserted that strident liberals had seized power of the Democratic Party.

“They’re successful charge,” she said, “which is wherefore we’re seeing what we thought would beryllium a mean medication instrumentality a crisp near crook each of a sudden.”