AP Decision Notes: What to expect in South Carolina’s state primaries

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal and state lawmakers in South Carolina will go before voters on Tuesday in primary elections, where the latest skirmish in an ongoing feud involving a former Republican U.S. House Speaker will play out.

Voters will decide nearly 90 contested primaries for the House of Representatives and both chambers of the state legislature. Republicans’ grip on those offices is likely not at risk this fall, but one contest may further exacerbate a high-profile rift within the party.

Rep. Nancy Mace is running for a third term in the 1st Congressional District in the state’s Lowcountry along the Atlantic coastline near Charleston. In 2023, she was one of eight U.S. House Republicans to break with the party and vote to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Since then, McCarthy has thrown the weight of his political operation and fundraising prowess against the defectors and has backed challengers to unseat them in their primaries.

In April, McCarthy’s political action committee, Majority Committee PAC or “MC PAC,” made a $10,000 contribution to Mace’s primary opponent, Catherine Templeton, the former director of the state’s labor agency under then-Gov. Nikki Haley. A separate committee, American Prosperity Alliance, where a McCarthy ally serves as a senior adviser, has made contributions to a group called South Carolina Patriots PAC, which has spent more than $2.1 million to defeat Mace. American Prosperity Alliance has also made contributions to a group called the America Fund, which is one of the South Carolina Patriots PAC’s principal donors.

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