Pete Hegseth’s removal of Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore from Navy Reserve command has given Democrats a South Carolina House candidate who is campaigning hard against his Pentagon leadership.
Lacore served 35 years in the Navy and was a year into commanding the Navy Reserve when the Pentagon chief fired her. She is now running as a Democrat in South Carolina’s 1st District, the coastal stretch from Beaufort to Charleston that is home to many retirees and service members.
USA TODAY reported she is neck-and-neck with Republican nominee Jenny Honeycutt in the latest polls, with the Nov. 3 election approaching. The Cook Political Report recently moved the race to “toss up” after forecasting a Republican hold all year.
President Donald Trump carried the same district by 13 percentage points in 2024. Democrats still see an opening, and they are building it around Hegseth’s record at the Pentagon and Lacore’s abrupt exit from uniform.
On the campaign circuit, Lacore has made Hegseth’s management of the military a central theme. She has told voters she is concerned about politics and religion inside the force, and she has criticized the administration’s handling of the war with Iran.
Her firing story, she said, surfaces without prompting.
“People are just concerned about the injection of politics and religion into the military,” Lacore said. “People who know the military know there is no place for either of those. It weakens the fabric that makes our military strong.”
"People are frustrated, scared and tired over everything that’s going on. Mostly, people want confidence. They want me to be able to tell them that it’s OK, that once Hegseth is out of there our military will recover and rebound."
That is a campaign message, not a readiness brief. A former three-star who spent a career under civilian control is now asking voters to treat her personnel file as an indictment of the civilian chosen to run the Pentagon.
Asked about impeachment, Lacore left little doubt where she stands.
"I certainly think he’s deserving. But I’m hopeful that maybe it will all be taken care of before I even get there."
South Carolina Democratic strategist John Moffett called the district “very tough, but not unwinnable,” and argued Lacore is uniquely positioned to test that claim.
"There’s this certain irony that Hegseth may have inadvertently helped create one of the most formidable Democratic congressional candidates in South Carolina that we’ve seen in a very long time."
Jeffrey Liszt, a partner at the Democratic firm Impact Research, went further. He called Hegseth a “ripe target politically,” tying him to the war with Iran, gas prices, and the fact that impeachment talk began among Republicans rather than Democrats.
Retiring Republican Rep. Nancy Mace long held the seat and won her last two elections handily before losing a gubernatorial primary. She had been a Trump ally, then split with him over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump did not endorse her. Democrats are treating the open race as their best shot in years along that coast.
Honeycutt remains the Republican nominee. The district’s recent presidential numbers still favor the GOP. A “toss up” rating is not a Democratic win. It is a warning light in a place that was supposed to be quiet.
Lacore’s dismissal sits inside a broader set of senior moves. Reporting has described personnel actions that removed or forced into retirement roughly two dozen high-ranking military leaders under Hegseth’s watch, along with a plan aimed at cutting top military positions by 20 percent. Those choices are exactly the kind of housecleaning presidents hire defense secretaries to make.
Similar senior staff changes at the Pentagon have already drawn fire from critics who dislike the new chain of command. Lacore’s leap into a House race shows how fast a management decision can become a campaign ad.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell answered the political pile-on with a narrow brief.
"solely focused on Peace Through Strength and ensuring our warfighters have everything they need to be successful."
That is the job description. Turning every relieved officer into a martyr is the opposition’s job description.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Sept. 15. The articles accuse him of violating the Constitution by continuing the war in Iran without congressional approval. House Speaker Mike Johnson then canceled the chamber’s last workday and sent members home early for an eight-week recess ahead of the midterms, delaying any vote.
Massie has said he will bring the articles back when lawmakers return Nov. 9 for the lame-duck session, regardless of who wins in November. In a post on X he argued Trump should dismiss Hegseth first.
"Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment. It’s the honorable thing to do. The House recessed early to avoid the vote, so I will reintroduce Hegseth articles of impeachment when we return for the lame duck session, regardless of the outcome of the midterm election."
The Massie impeachment push over Iran war powers is now part of the midterm noise machine. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., recently called his vote to confirm Hegseth the “biggest regret of my career.” Democrats have rushed to amplify every Republican crack.
Trump has not joined them. Speaking to reporters on Oct. 29 while heading to a South Carolina midterm rally, he defended his Pentagon chief and rejected the impeachment drive.
"He's doing a great job. He's a great warrior. I think he's the best at his job in many, many years and a lot of people agree with that."
Trump also said the Iran war will end “very soon,” language he has used for months. War powers fights belong in Congress. Using them as a candidate-recruitment poster is another matter.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told a recent rally that a Democratic majority would “run Pete Hegseth out of town.” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called him “unfit” to lead the Pentagon. Former President Barack Obama used an Oct. 24 rally in Ohio to mock Hegseth’s emphasis on troop standards and warrior culture.
"He’s very focused on important matters, like the jawlines and testosterone levels of our troops, and live streaming executions because that’s how he thinks you cultivate that manly, warrior spirit. How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking at himself in the mirror in the morning?"
Obama’s riff fits a larger pattern of personal ridicule aimed at a secretary whose brief includes live combat operations and force design. Public protests and slurs directed at Hegseth have followed the same script: attack the man, skip the mission.
Critics also point to Hegseth’s reported use of Signal for a sensitive military discussion, a push to livestream an execution, attention to troops’ testosterone levels, and the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs that reports directly to him. Each item is now campaign inventory for Democrats who need a face for their midterm argument.
Hegseth has also moved on valor recognition, including steps that upgraded awards for Abbey Gate Marines and challenged how prior leadership handled their heroism. That record rarely appears in Democratic speeches that treat every personnel action as a scandal.
South Carolina’s 1st District is not a blank canvas. Trump’s 13-point margin in 2024 set a hard baseline. Lacore’s biography is serious. Her closing argument is that Hegseth must go and that her own relief from command proves it.
Voters can respect a long Navy career and still reject the claim that a Democratic House seat is the remedy for every dispute inside the Pentagon. They can want strong civilian control of the military and still decline to nationalize one admiral’s exit into a referendum on the entire war cabinet.
If Lacore wins on Nov. 3, Democrats will say Hegseth built their candidate for them. If she loses, the same party will move on to the next foil. Either way, the secretary’s task remains the one Parnell stated: peace through strength, and a force that can fight.
Military reform creates critics by design. Packaging those critics as congressional hopefuls is a midterm tactic, and South Carolina gets to decide what it is worth.
