Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina’s 1st District has issued a statement urging the harshest possible punishment for former South Carolina State Representative RJ May, following his guilty plea to distributing child sexual abuse material.
“RJ May admitted to distributing 220 child sexual abuse videos 479 times to over 100 offenders across 18 states and six countries. Federal prosecutors called him a ‘hub’ for child exploitation who ‘showed no mercy toward the children he exploited.’ He deserves no mercy in return.
“May stood on the floor of our State House, voting to punish the very crimes he was perpetrating in the shadows. He looked constituents in the eye while facilitating the abuse of innocent children. This level of depravity and hypocrisy demands the absolute maximum penalty allowed by law.
“Child predators like May forfeit their right to leniency. They forfeit their right to compassion. They forfeit their place in civilized society. South Carolina’s justice system has failed victims for far too long by treating these heinous crimes with unacceptable softness. Every child whose innocence was stolen by May, and predators like him, deserves more than our sympathy, they deserve a system which ensures their abusers never see freedom again. Anything less is a betrayal of justice itself.”
Nancy Mace has represented South Carolina’s 1st District in Congress since 2021, after replacing Joe Cunningham. She previously served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2018 to 2020. Mace was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1977 and now resides in Charleston. She graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1999.