Sarah Mcbride Told Nancy Mace “Happy Pride” After Her Fifth-Place Primary Loss
Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of the United States Congress, needed only three words to mark the downfall of one of her loudest critics. “Happy Pride, Nancy.”
The Delaware Democrat was speaking at Equality PAC’s National Pride Gala in Washington on Tuesday, hours after Republican Nancy Mace crashed out of South Carolina’s race for governor.
Mace finished a distant fifth in the GOP primary on 9 June. Trump-backed Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson advanced to a runoff.
The line that brought the room to its feet
McBride did not gloat for long. “Today is a big day because today is the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary,” she told the crowd. “And for those of you who aren’t aware, my colleague and Congress’s top bathroom sheriff, Nancy Mace, is on the ballot.”
The room laughed. Then came the kicker. “While not all of the votes have been counted yet, she is in a respectful fifth place. I don’t like punching down, and I believe in the politics of grace. So all I will say is happy Pride, Nancy.”
Hundreds of LGBTQIA+ activists, donors and elected officials rose to their feet.
Why the win felt personal
The jab landed because Mace spent two years making McBride a target. After McBride won her seat in January 2025, Mace reinvented herself as one of the loudest anti-trans voices in Congress, pushing to ban transgender people from bathrooms in federal buildings.
She once chased a woman she assumed was McBride into a Capitol restroom, only to find a cisgender colleague.
McBride usually refuses to play that game. She told The Advocate last year that “leadership requires us to do things that aren’t easy,” and that she would rather persuade people than mirror her opponents. This time she made an exception, and she was not alone. Online, people lined Mace’s fifth place up against anti-trans activist Riley Gaines.
McBride reshared one post about the “conservative woman who placed 5th” with two words of her own. “Thoughts and prayers.”
