Rep. Nancy Mace

J. Austin McCubbin, a member of Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-SC), gubernatorial campaign team, has resigned in a post on X, saying she has "turned her back on MAGA."

"Nancy Mace has yet again decided to turn her back on MAGA to hug the political cactus that is the Rand Paul + Thomas Massie wing of the Party. I have notified her and her team that I am resigning because of this," McCubbin writes.

McCubbin, who has been involved in politics for over three decades, starting in 1994, serving as the Trump South Carolina State Director for the 2024 campaign and as a campaign manager and fundraising consultant for various high-profile Republican figures, including Representative Andy Barr and Senator Rand Paul, signed on as lead consultant for Mace's gubernatorial campaign in August.

"My name has been used publicly, while going back on her word to pay me, to trade on my Team Trump status and to work on her behalf with the White House, and I am 100% breaking with her campaign out of loyalty to the President," he writes.

Mace has had a fluctuating and complex relationship with President Donald Trump, most recently defying pressure from him to stop her push for the release of all files related to deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

McCubbin says it goes much deeper than that, writing on X, "The 2026 gubernatorial race has always been first and foremost a run for the president’s endorsement. South Carolina is Trump Country. Earlier this year Nancy parted ways with her General Consultant, because he was openly criticizing the President’s Iran strike and siding with Thomas Massie."

Massie led a successful bipartisan effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law that requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the Epstein files.

McCubbin also points to a PAC that has supported Mace as another reason for his resignation.

"Last month the [Kentucky Republican Senator] Rand Paul-affiliated Protect Freedom PAC began spending money on Nancy’s behalf. I had no prior knowledge of that, and campaigns can’t control outside spending. I chalked it up to nothing but independent activity," he explains.

"When I talked to Nancy last Wednesday, it became clear she has fully embraced the Rand Paul PAC. She told me she is directing a personal friend to fund a 7-figure check to Rand’s PAC. She distanced herself, and now she’s fully embracing the Rand Paul + Thomas Massie wing for money," he adds.

"Nancy Mace is wittingly or unwittingly a proxy for Rand Paul’s 2028 presidential campaign. That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back," McCubbin explains.

Saying he tried to warn Mace about the repercussions associated with this connection, McCubbin says she refused.

"She wouldn’t hear it when I warned her about the political risks and offered alternative solutions. She accused me of mansplaining, a woke term used by people who hate men, who ironically are her best demographic. That dog don’t hunt," he adds.

"Anyone who knows me knows that I have nothing personally against Rand or Nancy. This is about loyalty. My loyalty lies with President Trump, my colleagues I worked with in the campaign trenches and the MAGA base that I had the privilege to work with as the Team Trump SC State Director," he says.

McCubbin concluded saying Trump should move away from Mace.

"Governor McMaster has been a great governor. He has been very loyal to the President. South Carolina needs someone cut from the same cloth, where you know their word is their bond. My advice to the President, my friends in the White House, and South Carolina Trump voters: scratch her name from the list. As we say in South Carolina, there’s no lesson in the second kick of a mule," he concluded.