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While House Republicans gathered in South Florida to map out their strategy ahead of November’s midterm elections, one GOP lawmaker said she “jumped in to assist” with evacuation efforts overseas amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that she traveled to the Middle East on Sunday after she learned a South Carolina family was trapped in the wake of the conflict.
“When your people are stranded in a war zone, the only answer worthy of the office, worthy of our state, worthy of our country, is to get them out,” Mace, who is running to be South Carolina’s next governor, said in a statement.
After the family made it safely back to South Carolina, Mace said she stayed in the region and partnered with Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based crisis response group led by military veterans, to evacuate more Americans. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens have scrambled to leave the Middle East following widespread flight cancellations and airspace closures due to Iranian counterstrikes.
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Mace said she worked with the State Department to charter a flight for the stranded Americans while the private nonprofit supplied logistics for the rescue mission. On Wednesday night, Mace and dozens of American families on the flight landed in Greece.
Mace said 155 Americans — including 11 infants — were evacuated from Israel as part of Grey Bull Rescue’s 808th mission. The group says it has rescued 591 Americans from the region since the outbreak of the conflict.
“They had the people but didn’t have the plane. I jumped in to assist,” Mace said. “Tonight I am grateful. And I will never forget what I saw. What I learned. And the Americans who volunteered and who are serving our nation patriotically tonight.”
“Congresswoman Mace was fully embedded with our team, not to watch, but to work to save lives,” Bryan Stern, founder and chairman of Grey Bull Rescue, told Fox News Digital. “While a core value of Grey Bull Rescue is to be absolutely apolitical we are always PROUD AMERICANS to see our elected officials fighting for their constituents.”
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Grey Bull Rescue has been operating in the Middle East since 2023, during which the volunteer organization evacuated more than 300 Americans from Israel following the Oct. 7 attack.
The group recently helped Americans escape cartel violence in Mexico, following the killing of a notorious drug lord in February, and also facilitated the extraction of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado from her home country in 2025.
Over 43,000 Americans have departed the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, according to the State Department. Over 27,000 of those individuals received direct assistance from the U.S. government in evacuating the region, a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
The Trump administration advised Americans in 14 countries across the Middle East to “depart now” on Feb. 2, following a rise in security threats. Some Americans initially stranded in the region have criticized the State Department for failing to clearly communicate and distributing insufficient evacuation guidance.
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