Nancy Mace Says Pelosi ‘Was a More Effective House Speaker Than Any Republican This Century’

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik File

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) threw out some praise for her fellow congressional Nancy in an op-ed for The New York Times on Monday, writing that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “was a more effective Speaker than any Republican this century.”

Both Nancys are leaving Congress. Mace is joining a crowded GOP primary seeking to become South Carolina’s next governor, and Pelosi announced last month that she would not seek re-election.

In an op-ed headlined “What’s the Point of Congress?“, Mace wrote how she “came to Congress five years ago believing I could make a difference for my constituents, for South Carolina and for a country I love deeply,” but she had “learned that the system in the House promotes control by party leaders over accountability and achievement.”

“No one can be held responsible for inaction, so far too little gets done,” Mace lamented. “The obstacles to achieving almost anything are enough to make any member who came to Washington with noble intentions ask: Why am I even here?”

The problems, Mace wrote, have been going on for decades, with “[a] small number of lawmakers [who] negotiate major legislation behind closed doors and spring it on members with little notice or opportunity for input,” massive bills numbering thousands of pages with the provisions lawmakers wanted stripped out and unrelated policies stuffed in, amendments heavily limited, and “[l]eaders of both parties…systematically silenc[ing] rank-and-file voices.”

Even issues where there was a “bipartisan supermajority,” it was nearly impossible to get a bill passed, Mace wrote, except for the hard-to-reach 218-vote threshold for a discharge petition (like was used for the Epstein files vote).

Mace then lauded Pelosi, writing that despite their very different policy views, she still respected the Californian’s effectiveness:

Here’s a hard truth Republicans don’t want to hear: Nancy Pelosi was a more effective House speaker than any Republican this century. I agree with her on essentially nothing. But she understood something we don’t: No majority is permanent. When Democrats hold the majority, they ram through the most progressive policies they can. They deliver for the coalition that elected them while they are in power.

Republicans do the opposite. We get the majority, then become petrified of losing it. We pass the most moderate policies we can pressure conservatives to accept, betraying the coalition that delivered us here. Ms. Pelosi was ruthless, but she got things done. The current House is restrictive and ineffective, control with barely any results. Republican leadership seems intent on replicating her model of consolidation without her bold vision to push through the policies that won us the majority.

Mace issued a dire warning to her GOP colleagues for the looming 2026 midterms: Republicans currently had “a governing trifecta: the House, the Senate and the White House,” but “[i]f we fail to pass legislation that permanently secures the border, addresses the affordability crisis, improves health care and restores law and order, we will lose this majority. And we will deserve it.”