Nancy Mace’s bizarre effort to censure Ilhan Omar fails after GOP defections

An effort to censure U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), led by her colleague U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), has failed after several Republican members of Congress joined the Democrats in dissent.

Mace introduced the resolution to strip Omar of all her committee assignments in response to alleged remarks made by Omar after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Omar has denied making the remarks and reiterated her calls to end all political violence in America.

Fun fact: Nancy Mace is trying to censure me over comments I never said.

Her res does not contain a single quote from me because she couldn’t find any.

Unlike her, I have routinely condemned political violence, no matter the political ideology.

This is all an attempt to… pic.twitter.com/g84gHrtAZJ

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 16, 2025

After Kirk’s death, Omar called the incident “mortifying” but criticized conservatives who are currently downplaying how divisive Kirk’s commentary was.

The resolution failed by a 213-213 vote after Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), Tom McClintock (CA) and Cory Mills (R-FL) joined all House Democrats in voting down the measure. Mills said his vote was a “constitutional First Amendment issue.” Flood said he believes an ethics investigation is due before any disciplinary action against Omar is taken.

Mace, who used her campaign against Omar to fundraise, told reporters that the vote was “really gross, and very disappointing.” Omar said she was “glad that there are at least four [Republicans] that are left that believe in the First Amendment and are willing to protect the rights of members to not be punished for things that they haven’t done.”

According to The New York Times congressional correspondent Robert Jimison, Mace has made more than 75 X posts about Omar in recent days — including calling for her to be removed from office and deported from the United States (Omar has been a U.S. citizen since 2000) as well as falsely accusing her of inciting political violence and supporting ISIS. Mace also appeared to attack the First Amendment when she said, “Free speech isn’t free from consequences.”

Mace, 47, has represented South Carolina’s 1^st Congressional District since January 2021. Last month, she announced her candidacy for South Carolina’s 2026 gubernatorial election.