DANIEL ISLAND – U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace is returning to Congress for a third term after handily defeating a Democratic challenger in a race that was considered so predictable that she used a two-year-old television ad to promote the to present their arguments to voters in 2024.

Mace's victory over Democratic primary candidate Michael B. Moore extends her time in Washington and solidifies Republican control of a seat that Democrats had hoped against all odds to retake.

With nearly all votes counted in the 1st Congressional District race, Mace received about 58 percent of the vote in a seat that stretches the coast from Charleston to Beaufort and includes parts of Colleton, Dorchester and Berkeley counties.

“The radical left believes that strong, intelligent women cannot possibly be independent-minded conservatives, that our husbands tell us how to vote, and that any woman who disagrees with them must be weak or misguided,” Mace said in news of their victory.

“But they don’t know what it’s like to work twice as hard for half the loan,” she added. “Those who underestimate me do not bother me; that just makes me work harder; It also makes the victory so much sweeter.”

Four years ago, in another congressional election, Mace narrowly edged out Democrat Joe Cunningham in a tight race that ended his congressional career, securing victory by just 5,415 votes.

This year, the second election cycle under redrawn political lines later upheld by the Supreme Court, the election was on the verge of a bust and the final results had not yet been determined.

Mace struck down Moore, a newcomer with a distinguished family legacy as the great-great-grandson of Civil War hero Robert Smalls. At the heart of the competition, Moore struggled to compete against Mace, whose fundraising power, social media fame and established name recognition made her a formidable opponent.

His most notable moment was when he became the first Democrat from South Carolina to call for Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.

Mace's vacillating attitude toward Donald Trump, from vocal supporter to outspoken critic and back to loyal ally, also seemed to matter little to voters in the district.

Arguably her biggest political battle came months ago during her Republican primary, when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy exacted political retribution after she voted to oust him. She easily prevailed in the June primary.