Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a resolution Monday to expel fellow Republican Cory Mills from the U.S. House of Representatives, accusing the Florida congressman of domestic violence, stolen valor, and profiting from federal contracts while serving on key committees. Mills fired back within hours, filing his own resolution to expel Mace from the chamber.
The dueling expulsion bids mark one of the ugliest intra-party fights on Capitol Hill in recent memory, and one that neither side appears willing to walk away from. Mace, the South Carolina Republican who is presently running for governor, posted a string of accusations against Mills on X and dared him to retaliate. Mills called the whole affair "obviously a political, Democratic tit-for-tat" and denied wrongdoing.
Both resolutions face steep odds. Only six House members have ever been expelled. The most recent was former New York Congressman George Santos in 2023. Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote, a threshold nearly impossible to reach in a narrowly divided chamber where every Republican seat matters.
Mace did not hold back. In a post on X, the South Carolina congresswoman laid out a sweeping indictment of Mills's conduct:
"Mills allegedly beats women, has a restraining order against him from threatening a woman, reports say he's an arms dealer while sitting on House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs, and rumored to be profiting off federal contracts from his own seat."
She followed that with a blunter assessment, writing that Mills is "neck-deep in fraud and police reports. He has no place in Congress. His rightful place is behind bars." She urged Mills to "bring it on."
The resolution itself, as Just The News reported, accuses Mills of misrepresenting his military service, sexual misconduct, campaign finance violations, and illicit involvement in federal contracts while serving in Congress. Mace did not file the resolution as privileged, though she could still force a floor vote in the future.
A 2025 police report cited in the coverage states that Mills's then-girlfriend accused him of grabbing her, shoving her, and pushing her out of the door of his apartment. Mills called the allegation "patently false."
This is not the first time Mace has tried to hold Mills accountable through House procedures. The New York Post reported that an earlier effort by Mace to censure Mills and strip him of his committee assignments was blocked, and the allegations were instead referred to the House Ethics Committee. The bipartisan panel formed a subcommittee to investigate a wide range of claims against Mills. That inquiry remains ongoing.
Mace framed the blocked censure effort as proof the system protects its own. "The swamp has protected Cory Mills for far too long and we are done letting it slide," she said. "We tried to censure him and strip him from his committee assignments. Both parties blocked it, but we are not backing down."
Mills wasted no time retaliating. After Mace filed her resolution Monday, Mills introduced his own resolution to expel Mace from the House. By Tuesday morning, he posted pictures of Mace drinking alcohol on X, an apparent attempt to undermine her credibility.
In an interview with NewsNation last week, Mills rejected comparisons to other lawmakers who have faced misconduct allegations. "I don't belong in the same category as Swalwell and his allies," he said.
He added: "One, I'm not married, so there's one thing. Two, I've never sexually harassed and or have any complaints by any staffers or interns on the Hill. It's just not even a fair comparison."
Mills also pushed back on the expulsion effort on procedural grounds. Newsmax reported that Mills argued Mace's resolution sets a dangerous precedent. "I think that what the precedent that she's setting right now is that you only have to be investigated," Mills said. House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed that concern, saying the Ethics Committee should complete its report before the full House acts.
The procedural argument has some weight. Mills has not been criminally charged. The Ethics Committee investigation, which the Washington Examiner reported has been underway since August 2024, has not yet produced a public report. Speaker Johnson has not endorsed Mills's expulsion even as he backed removal in a separate ethics case.
But Mace's counterargument is straightforward. "Any Member who votes to keep him here is voting to protect a woman beater and a fraud. He needs to be expelled immediately," she said.
Mace herself is not operating from a position of clean hands, at least in the court of public opinion. A New York Magazine report published earlier this year detailed accounts from former staffers who described her workplace conduct as "excessive."
One former staffer told the magazine: "Our poor scheduler was getting calls at two in the morning to bring her bottles of tequila." Another staffer said they were instructed to look up Reddit forums that ranked the "hottest women in Congress" and raise Mace's standing with comments and upvotes.
Mace was also filmed having a heated altercation with airport staff at the Charleston airport back in her home state of South Carolina. The details and date of that incident were not specified.
The congresswoman got ahead of the New York Magazine story on Sunday evening, posting on X: "As NY Mag publishes the next national hit piece against me tomorrow, the establishment doesn't go after people who fall in line. They go after people who don't." She added: "I'll take that as a compliment. When you stand for something, you make enemies. I've never let that stop me from doing my job, and I'm not starting now."
Mace cast herself as a survivor taking on a broken system. Breitbart reported she said: "As a survivor, I will always stand up and right the wrongs of others." She also said of Mills's retaliatory expulsion filing: "He is only coming after me because he knows he's next."
The Mace-Mills feud lands at an uncomfortable moment for House Republicans. The GOP majority is razor-thin, and every seat matters for floor votes. An expulsion, of either member, would shrink the conference further and hand Democrats leverage on close votes.
The broader pattern is hard to ignore. Recent months have seen House Republicans pressure one of their own to resign over scandal allegations, and the party has faced a string of retirements that have tested its ability to hold the majority together.
Meanwhile, the Ethics Committee's investigation into Mills continues. Catherine Treadwell, Mills's longtime chief of staff and chief counsel, abruptly resigned earlier this month. Her resignation letter was brief and pointed: "The horrors persist, but I do not."
A former Mills staffer told the Daily Mail they were unsure whether Mills's divorce agreement had been completed. As of September 2025, Mills was still undergoing legal proceedings in that divorce.
The Ethics Committee process has become a recurring flashpoint in Congress. Recent cases involving other lawmakers facing possible expulsion have shown how slow and politically fraught the process can be, and how members under investigation sometimes resign just before the hammer falls.
Mace's resolution is not currently privileged, meaning there is no guaranteed timeline for a floor vote. She could move to force one, but rounding up two-thirds support in this environment would be a tall order. Mills, for his part, appears dug in, denying every allegation and framing the fight as political overreach.
Speaker Johnson's preference for waiting on the Ethics Committee report suggests Republican leadership is not eager to pick sides. That leaves both resolutions in limbo and both members trading accusations on social media while the committee does its work behind closed doors.
The wave of GOP departures from Congress makes the stakes even higher. Every Republican who leaves, voluntarily or otherwise, tightens the margins and makes governing harder.
Open questions remain. What exactly is the Ethics Committee investigating? What were the specific grounds cited in each expulsion resolution? What happened with the 2025 police report allegation? And will Speaker Johnson eventually weigh in with more than a call for patience?
Voters in South Carolina and Florida are watching two of their elected representatives spend time and political capital trying to throw each other out of Congress. Whatever the merits of the underlying allegations, that spectacle does nothing for the people who sent them to Washington to govern.
When Republicans are filing expulsion resolutions against each other instead of passing legislation, the only people who benefit are the ones who wanted the majority to fail in the first place.