Two people received prison and house-arrest sentences on the same day for making violent threats against Rep. Nancy Mace, part of a sharp rise in threats targeting members of Congress and their families.

A federal judge in Indiana sentenced 28-year-old Shayla Addison to 27 months in federal prison on Tuesday for threatening to kill Mace. Hours away, a South Carolina judge handed Samuel Theodore Cain, who posted online under the alias "Roxie Wolfe", a five-year sentence suspended to 30 months of house arrest plus five years of probation. The Hill reported both sentencings took place on July 22, 2026.

The twin cases illustrate how easily online threats translate into real-world fear and disruption for elected officials and their families. Mace, described as an outgoing South Carolina Republican, told the court that the fallout from these threats continues to affect her daily life, her children's safety arrangements, and the functioning of her congressional offices.

Addison sent death threats by phone, email, and Instagram

Addison's threats arrived in January 2025 through Mace's campaign phone number, campaign email address, and Instagram account. The messages left no room for ambiguity. Mace's office and the Department of Justice attributed the following messages to Addison:

"Come outside b---- we'll kill you"

"We will kill you and blow that whole building up b---- come outside"

"Shut up hoe I'll kill you"

Addison pleaded guilty to two counts of influencing a federal official by threat. The federal judge imposed 27 months behind bars followed by three years of supervised release. The DOJ noted that Addison had a history of making threats, including prior threats against a Firehouse Subs restaurant where her ex-boyfriend worked and against her own mother's apartment.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Indiana did not identify Mace by name as the target. Mace's own office filled in that detail in a separate release on Tuesday.

The pattern matters. Addison did not make a single rash comment. She sent repeated, graphic threats across multiple platforms, directed at a sitting member of Congress. The 27-month sentence reflects the seriousness of those charges, and the prior history of similar behavior.

Cain posted an assassination threat, then doubled down in jail

Cain's case followed a different path but arrived at the same destination. In May 2025, Cain posted a message on social media that read:

"I'M GOING TO ASSASSINATE REPRESENTATIVE NANCY MACE WITH A GUN AND I'M BEING 100% DEAD A--."

Mace's office identified Cain as transgender and provided the online alias "Roxie Wolfe." The threat was not an isolated outburst. While in custody, Cain told a jailhouse informant that if the opportunity arose, Cain would follow through on the threat against Mace. During that same conversation, Cain discussed the September 2025 fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

The South Carolina judge gave Cain the maximum term allowed under state law, five years, suspended to 30 months of house arrest and five years of probation. The sentence underscores the limits of state-level prosecution for threats against federal officials. A federal charge might have carried stiffer consequences.

Mace has been one of the most prominent Republican voices on women's sports and related policy debates, and her office's decision to identify Cain as transgender suggests the threat may have been connected to those political battles, though the source does not state a motive explicitly.

Mace told the court the threats still disrupt her family's life

At Cain's sentencing hearing, Mace delivered a victim's impact statement. She described the immediate and lasting consequences of the threats in concrete terms:

"My staff immediately advised heightened security measures in the aftermath of Mr. Cain's threats."

"Law enforcement increased its presence near my home and work. Everyday schedules, safety arrangements for my children, and the day-to-day functioning of my offices continue to be disrupted to this day."

Mace also referred to the "practical effects" of the threats as ongoing. On Tuesday, she posted on the social platform X that she was "grateful for the law enforcement and prosecutors" involved in both cases.

Those practical effects are worth pausing on. A member of Congress and her children live under heightened security. Her staff operates with disrupted schedules. Law enforcement resources are diverted to protect her home and workplace, all because individuals felt free to post graphic threats online.

Nearly 15,000 threats targeted Congress last year, up 58 percent

The Mace cases are not outliers. U.S. Capitol Police investigated nearly 15,000 concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol complex in the prior year. That figure represented an increase of roughly 57.7 percent compared to 2024 and marked the third consecutive year of rising threats.

Capitol Police cited the "false sense of anonymity" that individuals feel online as a driver of the increase. The Addison and Cain cases bear that out. Both made their threats through digital channels, campaign contact forms, Instagram, social media posts, apparently believing they could threaten a congresswoman's life without consequence.

The surge in threats against elected officials raises serious questions about whether current penalties are sufficient to deter this behavior. Addison received just over two years in federal prison. Cain received house arrest under state law. Meanwhile, the Justice Department faces its own political pressures over how it allocates resources and sets enforcement priorities.

The fact that the U.S. Attorney's Office did not even name Mace as the victim in its own press release, leaving her office to fill in that detail, is a small but telling procedural gap. Victims of threats deserve public acknowledgment from the agencies prosecuting their cases.

Accountability in these cases also intersects with broader debates about how federal institutions handle politically sensitive matters. When threats against lawmakers rise by nearly 58 percent in a single year, the system's response needs to match the scale of the problem.

Mace is far from the only member of Congress living with this reality. But her cases put concrete numbers and real sentences on a problem that too often gets treated as background noise. Two people threatened to kill a sitting congresswoman. One promised to use a gun. The other threatened to bomb her building. Both were caught, prosecuted, and sentenced on the same day.

Congress has spent considerable energy in recent sessions on impeachment resolutions and political fights over executive branch officials. The question of whether lawmakers themselves can safely do their jobs without living under constant threat deserves at least as much attention.

A 58 percent spike in threats against Congress is not a statistic that fixes itself. If people face real prison time for threatening elected officials, and know it, fewer of them will hit "post."