Former Atlanta resident Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, is back in her home state and working for presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mace, a mother of two who has been working in real estate since running against US Sen. Lindsey Graham last year, made the announcement via Facebook.
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Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
"It is clearer today than ever, Americans want a leader who is unafraid to 'tell it like it is.' And let's face it, Mr. Trump says what everyone else is thinking, and has the courage to take a stand when others cave to the establishment's every whim. And make no mistake, the establishment is afraid of losing all its power! As I've always said, we are never going to change the way we do business in Washington until we change the people we send there!"
Mace was living in Atlanta with her husband Curtis Jackson and children Ellison and Miles when she discussed her historic college experience with the AJC in 2009 , as fellow Citadel graduate Pat Conroy was visiting Atlanta on a book tour.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
“She has written her name in lights in the history of The Citadel,”Conroy said during a stop at the Carter Center. “I’m as proud of her as I can possibly be.”
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Mace wrote a memoir about her time at the Citadel, also her dad's alma mater, in 2001 , but had generally kept quiet about her role in the school's timeline. Her reticence was partly a security concern. Threats started pouring in the summer before she started, there was a bomb scare at her graduation, and angry e-mails or phone calls have cropped up after public appearances. But Mace was mostly reluctant to draw attention to herself: her goal was to join the Long Gray Line, not stand apart from it.
"I was looking to go in quietly, do my thing," she told the AJC. "I wasn’t there for the fame and fortune or the media circus.”
Fast forward to 2015, working with Trump is bound to involve a bit of spectacle, but the former knob is ready for the rigors of campaign life: "To say the response from friends, neighbors and strangers alike, has been overwhelming, is an understatement!"
