A freshman Congresswoman from South Carolina is now carrying a gun with her wherever she goes and is visiting a gun range at least once a week, after at least one vandal defaced her home, front steps, sidewalk and street with black spray paint.
The messages the vandal allegedly left at Nancy Mace's Charleston home while she was away for Memorial Day weekend included 'F*** you Nancy,' 'all politicians are bastards,' 'no gods, no masters,' and 'pass the pro act' next to Antifa symbols.
'When they show up to your house and physically just, you know, try to destroy it with graffiti, it's personal and its invasive and it's violating and it doesn't feel good,' Mace, a Republican, told Fox News
Shortly after the incident, the Republican congresswoman posted on her personal Twitter account that she was 'buying another firearm. This one to carry.'
'Feeling safer today than yesterday,' she wrote on June 5.
Nancy Mace, a Congresswoman from South Carolina, said she has been visiting the gun range at least once a week since her home in Charleston was vandalized over Memorial Day weekend
She said she feels empowered by being able to defend herself, and carries a concealed weapon with her everywhere she can
Following the alleged vandalism, Mace, a graduate of The Citadel, posted on her personal Twitter page that she was buying a new firearm 'this one to carry'
She told Fox that the vandalism over Memorial Day weekend was not the first time she felt threatened.
In October 2020, one month before narrowly beating Democrat incumbent Joe Cunningham, she reported that her car had been keyed, and after receiving death threats in December, she got a concealed weapons permit.
'It doesn't feel good that I feel like I have to look behind my shoulder every day,' she said. 'It doesn't feel safe.'
'I carry a gun wherever I go today,' she said. 'Wherever I'm allowed to carry.'
Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, said she grew up with guns in her home and is now teaching her two middle school-aged children to shoot.
'When this happened, it really changed everything for me,' she told FOX News.
'I'm not going to live in fear, and I'm not going to be intimidated.
'I think it's one of the most empowering things that you can do is be able to defend yourself.'
Some of the alleged graffiti at Mace's house include the phrase 'All politicians are bastards' surrounded by three Antifa symbols
Mace's steps were also allegedly defaced with spray paint reading 'no gods, no masters'
Spray paint on the side of her home allegedly told her to 'pass the pro act'
Police responded to Mace's home at around 8.10am on May 31, according to police reports, and Mace
