The former chief of staff for South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace is considering launching a primary challenge against his ex-boss, according to a report.
Dan Hanlon is actively engaging with potential donors and prospective campaign staffers as he mulls running against the 46-year-old Republican congresswoman in the Palmetto State’s 1st Congressional District, according to Politico.
“Hanlon has been pleased with how well the idea has been received and how many people are looking for a Mace alternative, both money people in DC and movers and shakers in [South Carolina],” a Republican familiar with Hanlon’s decision-making told the outlet.
Hanlon, who before joining Mace’s staff in 2021 worked for four years in the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget, left the South Carolina lawmaker’s office last month.
The work environment in Mace’s office has been described as “toxic,” according to the Washington Examiner, and one in which the congresswomen frequently subjected her subordinates to inappropriate commentary about her sex life.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) referenced Hanlon — who is reportedly among six former Mace staffers who have recently quit working for her — in the immediate aftermath of last October’s vote to strip him of his speakership.
Mace, one of the eight GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of ousting the former speaker, was called out by McCarthy over her claims that he wasn’t keeping his word.
“So, I call [Mace’s] chief of staff [Hanlon] … I said, ‘Can you please tell me, I don’t understand? Where have I not kept my word?’” McCarthy told reporters the day he was removed from the speakership. “Chief of staff said, ‘You have kept your word 100%.’
“Her chief of staff told all of us we have kept every single one of our words. And he said he’s told her that, too,” the former speaker added.
McCarthy noted during the press conference that he would give Hanlon a job if Mace fired him.
Hanlon faces a March 30 deadline to file his candidacy in the South Carolina 1st District race.
Mace’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
