Nancy Mace is taking the rare step of moving to censure fellow Republican Cory Mills as party tensions reach a breaking point
Representative Nancy Mace is preparing to do something rarely seen in Congress: force a vote to censure a member of her own party. The South Carolina Republican plans to introduce a resolution Wednesday calling for the censure and committee removal of Florida Representative Cory Mills, setting up a dramatic showdown that could come to a head by the end of the week.
The move represents a boiling over of Republican frustrations surrounding Mills, who has become a lightning rod for controversy within the party. Mace intends to make her proposal a privileged resolution, a parliamentary maneuver that would compel GOP leadership to address the matter within two legislative days. This means the House could be voting on the fate of a sitting Republican congressman before the week concludes.
A year filled with personal turmoil
Mills has found himself at the center of multiple personal controversies throughout 2025. Most recently, a Florida county judge granted a restraining order that an ex-girlfriend had requested against the congressman. The woman accused Mills of harassment and threatening to release intimate photographs of her following their breakup earlier in the year. While Mills has denied some of these accusations, the legal action has added another layer of scrutiny to his already complicated public profile.
The personal issues represent just one aspect of the broader problems surrounding the Florida congressman. Additional controversies have dogged Mills throughout his time in office, including accusations of stolen valor that he has consistently denied. Questions have also emerged about how and why he received a Bronze Star, with reporting from The Daytona Beach News-Journal citing two service members who disputed Mills’s involvement in their rescue or his provision of life-saving care.
Failed Democratic attempts create tension
Democrats have actually tried to censure Mills three separate times in recent months, but each effort came as a retaliatory response to Republican attempts to censure Democratic members. When those Republican censure efforts failed, Democrats chose not to push forward with votes on Mills, creating a frustrating dynamic for Republicans who wanted to see consequences for his alleged behavior.
The tension reached a breaking point Tuesday night when the House rejected a resolution to censure Democratic Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands. The measure targeted Plaskett for texting with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. Three Republicans voted alongside all Democrats to defeat the measure, while three other Republicans voted present, resulting in a 209-214-3 failure.
Confrontations on the House floor
The aftermath of that failed vote turned chaotic on the House floor. Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado reportedly yelled at her fellow Republicans following the result and directly confronted Mills. Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida went further, suggesting on the floor that shady bipartisan deals to protect Mills had led to the Plaskett resolution’s defeat.
Luna questioned whether the Speaker could explain why leadership from both parties appeared to be making back-end deals to cover up what she characterized as public corruption in the House. Her parliamentary inquiry was ruled improper, but the public accusation underscored the deep suspicions among some Republicans about what they view as preferential treatment for Mills.
Mills’s office has denied the existence of any deal to stop the Plaskett censure, stating they expected a censure resolution against Mills would eventually come up for a procedural vote.
The Omar vote that sparked outrage
Another flashpoint in this saga occurred in September when the House rejected an effort by Mace to censure Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota over comments she reposted about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Mills cast the deciding vote against that censure, effectively sinking the measure. Democrats had prepared a retaliatory censure of Mills that would have moved forward had the Omar reprimand succeeded.
Mills denied that his vote against censuring Omar was motivated by self-protection. However, Mace saw it differently and went on the offensive, using social media to highlight various controversies surrounding the Florida congressman. The incident appears to have been a turning point in Mace’s decision to pursue formal censure proceedings against her colleague.
What happens next
The upcoming vote will test Republican unity at a time when the party can ill afford internal divisions. Mills has not yet provided public comment on Mace’s expected censure effort, leaving questions about how he plans to defend himself against the allegations and whether other Republicans will rally to his defense or join Mace in condemning his conduct.
Source: Emily Brooks, The Hill