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COLUMBIA, S.C. — <\/span>After a decade of roiling South Carolina and national politics, Rep. Nancy Mace finished a distant fifth in her state’s Republican primary for governor<\/a>, leaving an uncertain future for one of the nation’s unabashed politicians.<\/p>\n Her campaign mirrored her whipsaw career. Mace courted the support of President Donald Trump after harshly criticizing him over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She emphasized her fights with other Republicans to release files<\/a> from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. <\/p>\n In the final days before Tuesday’s primary, she called for a law to prevent anyone not born in the U.S. from holding political office or serving as a judge. She suggested that Rom Reddy, another candidate for governor, wasn’t qualified because he was a naturalized citizen whose mother was from India and father from Italy.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t come out of a slum in India,\u201d Mace said during an appearance in Greenville County this month. \u201cI am born and made here in America.\u201d<\/p>\n By the end of her campaign she was only making sporadic public appearances. She struggled to raise money and had no presence on television. Mace mostly communicated through social media \u2014 a place she has used to her advantage since first being elected to the South Carolina House in 2017.<\/p>\n In a lengthy statement posted after her loss, Mace recounted her achievements in the U.S. House, saying she had \u201ctaken on the rich and powerful in both parties\u201d and \u201cvoted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Four congressional Republicans were part of the initial group pushing for a discharge petition forcing the files’ release. Mace and Rep. Thomas Massie lost their races, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January. <\/p>\n Mace didn’t give an indication of her next plans in her concession speech Tuesday night. She is backing Alan Wilson in the runoff for governor, even though just last year she accused Wilson of protecting child sex abuse defendants.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen children needed him to act, Wilson looked the other way,” she said.<\/p>\n Wilson will face Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the runoff on June 23. Evette received Trump’s endorsement, spurring Mace to lash out on social media. <\/p>\n \u201cPamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP,\u201d Mace wrote, incorrectly. \u201cDo not believe her LIES.\u201d Mace posted an AI-generated image of posing with Trump herself. <\/p>\n Mace dropped out of high school and worked as a server at the Waffle House before getting her diploma. She later attended The Citadel and became the first woman to graduate from the state\u2019s military academy. And in recent years, she talked about the importance of defending victims of sexual assault and shared stories of being raped as a teen.<\/p>\n After her political career began in the South Carolina House, Mace got wide praise from Republicans in 2020 for winning back<\/a> a U.S. House seat around Charleston that had flipped to Democrats for one term.<\/p>\n \u201cFor those folks that are out there today that maybe weren\u2019t with us yesterday, I\u2019m asking for a chance \u2014 a chance to prove to you that I will be a compassionate leader, a good listener, an independent thinker,\u201d Mace said then.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Kinnard reported from Washington. Bill Barrow contributed from Atlanta. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n