Nancy Mace’s bid to become South Carolina’s next governor hit fresh turbulence Monday after a top campaign consultant abruptly resigned — and torched the congresswoman on his way out. Austin McCubbin, a well-known Republican operative with deep MAGA credentials, announced in a blistering post on X that he was cutting ties with Mace because she had “decided to turn her back on MAGA.”

McCubbin accused Mace of cozying up to the libertarian-leaning Rand Paul and Thomas Massie faction of the GOP, calling that wing “the political cactus” she was trying to hug. But the allegation that drew the most attention came next: McCubbin claimed Mace told him she directed a friend to route a “7-figure check” to Protect Freedom PAC, a group closely aligned with Sen. Rand Paul. He argued that the move made her “wittingly or unwittingly a proxy for Rand Paul’s 2028 presidential campaign.”

McCubbin insisted that conversation was the breaking point. According to him, Mace used his name publicly, leaned on his Team Trump reputation, and reneged on paying him while asking him to work with the White House on her behalf. “I am 100% breaking with her campaign out of loyalty to the President,” he wrote.

Mace’s team hit back hard. In a statement, a campaign spokesperson dismissed McCubbin as ineffective and absent. “Mr. McCubbin didn’t raise a dime for the campaign or better yet, never even bothered showing up,” the spokesperson said. “When he demanded $10,000 a month for ‘services’ and was told no, he ran straight to X. Good luck with that.”

Trump’s endorsement is the crown jewel every candidate in the crowded Republican field is chasing, and Mace has been openly seeking it since launching her gubernatorial run in August. McCubbin’s public break appears aimed squarely at undermining her chances. “My advice to the President, my friends in the White House, and South Carolina Trump voters: scratch her name from the list,” he wrote.

McCubbin was not some fringe hire. The campaign announced him earlier this year as one of its “lead consultants,” touting his record managing Trump’s successful South Carolina operations and his previous work managing Mace’s 2022 reelection campaign.

In his resignation post, McCubbin framed the dispute as a matter of honor and loyalty — praising current Governor Henry McMaster as a “great governor” and “very loyal” Trump ally. “South Carolina needs someone cut from the same cloth,” he wrote, “where you know their word is their bond.”