Hegseth fired Nancy Lacore. Now he could help her get to Congress - USA Today

Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore was a year into her command of the Navy Reserve when she was fired by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, one of roughly two dozen high-ranking military leaders he purged or forced into retirement.

Unemployed for the first time after 35 years of Navy service, Lacore decided to run for Congress as a Democrat in South Carolina’s 1st District. Or, more precisely, she decided to run against Hegseth, using her campaign to fiercely criticize his management of the military and highlight his responsibility for the Iran war.

Hegseth has become the public face of President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war in the Middle East, which has defined the midterms. But a string of scandals during Hegseth's tenure at the Pentagon have provided Democrats with ample fodder for attacks that go beyond criticism of the war.

Democrats across the country have repeatedly brought up Hegseth’s use of Signal, the commercial messaging app, to discuss a sensitive military operation, his ill-fated push to livestream an execution and his fixation on troops’ testosterone levels. Hegseth has also faced backlash for pushing his evangelical Christianity on the Pentagon, most recently creating an Office of Religious Affairs that reports directly to him.

In South Carolina, Lacore has discussed how her career was upended by the Pentagon’s personnel purge, which critics have denounced for disproportionately targeting women and Black senior military officers.

It is a strategy that has turned Hegseth into a foil for Democrats on the campaign trail. Criticism of the Pentagon’s leadership has particularly resonated with voters in Lacore’s heavily Republican district, which Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024.

“People are just concerned about the injection of politics and religion into the military,” Lacore said in an interview with USA TODAY. “People who know the military know there is no place for either of those. It weakens the fabric that makes our military strong.”

According to the latest polls, Lacore is running neck-and-neck with Republican nominee Jenny Honeycutt. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections forecaster, recently shifted its race prediction to "toss up" after predicting a Republican victory all year.

Hegseth’s various controversies and “the fact that he’s the poster child for the war – which is going badly and has driven up gas prices – combine to make him a ripe target politically,” said Jeffrey Liszt, a partner at Impact Research, a Democratic polling firm.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, said at a recent rally that a Democratic majority would “run Pete Hegseth out of town.” Former President Barack Obama skewered Hegseth’s focus on physical appearances at a campaign rally in Ohio. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, said “Hegseth is unfit” to lead the Pentagon.

Hegseth and Trump have struggled to find an answer to the criticisms in the final days of the campaign. Trump on Oct. 29 slammed a Republican-led impeachment effort against Hegseth and said the Iran war will end “very soon,” a comment he has repeated for nearly eight months.

Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, wrote in a statement that Hegseth’s team is “​​solely focused on Peace Through Strength and ensuring our warfighters have everything they need to be successful.”

Lacore’s district, home to many retirees and U.S. service members, runs along the coast in South Carolina from Beaufort to Charleston. 

Until recently, the seat was viewed as a GOP stronghold. Rep. Nancy Mace, the retiring Republican incumbent, handily won her last two elections, creating the perception that the district was out of reach for Democrats. Mace, a former Trump ally, opted to run for governor of South Carolina and lost in the Republican primary. Trump didn’t endorse Mace after she split with the president over releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.

John Moffett, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina, said in an interview that the district is “very tough, but not unwinnable” for a Democrat in this political environment.

“If anybody can do it, then certainly Nancy Lacore can,” he added.  

Lacore, who served in the Navy for more than three decades, said that the story of her abrupt firing “has come up organically in almost every room.” She said it has helped her connect with Republican veterans who have grown increasingly wary of Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon.

While Lacore has emphasized affordability and fuel prices in conversations with voters, she said that Hegseth’s “mishandling of the military” has become a more widespread concern in the final months of the campaign. 

“People are frustrated, scared and tired over everything that’s going on,” she said. “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.”

If Lacore manages to flip the district, Hegseth will be a significant part of the reason why. 

“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,” Moffett said.

Lacore said the Pentagon chief should not hold his breath waiting for a thank-you card if she wins Nov. 3. She’d sooner vote to impeach him.

“I certainly think he’s deserving” of impeachment, Lacore said. “But I’m hopeful that maybe it will all be taken care of before I even get there.”

Democrats have pledged to seek oversight and accountability in the Pentagon if they return to the majority, but they may not need to wait until a new Congress is seated in January to vote for Hegseth’s impeachment. 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Sept. 15, accusing the Pentagon chief of violating the Constitution by continuing the war in Iran without congressional approval.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, skirted the potentially damaging vote on impeaching Hegseth in September by canceling the House of Representatives’ last day of work and sending members home early for an eight-week recess ahead of the midterms.

The decision by Massie to launch the impeachment effort provided Democratic candidates with more ammunition to go after Hegseth and helped make their criticisms seem more credible to voters, according to Liszt.

“The impeachment of Hegseth started with Republicans and not with Democrats,” he said. “That’s part of the reason why he’s an opportune target.”

Democrats have made Hegseth a focus of their campaign rallies in battleground states that will determine control of Congress. In remarks at a rally in Ohio on Oct. 24, Obama accused the Pentagon chief of misplacing his priorities as the Trump administration struggles to end a war in the Middle East that has upended the global economy and left national average gas prices above $4 a gallon.

“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,” Obama said. “How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking at himself in the mirror in the morning?”

The criticism has not only come from Democratic lawmakers. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, recently called his vote to confirm Hegseth the “biggest regret of my career.”

Trump defended Hegseth in remarks to reporters before traveling to a midterm rally in South Carolina on Oct. 29. 

“He's doing a great job. He's a great warrior,” Trump said. “I think he's the best at his job in many, many years and a lot of people agree with that.”

Massie, however, has vowed to renew his push to impeach Hegseth if he is still leading the Pentagon when lawmakers return to Washington on Nov. 9. The effort would be met with broad support from Democrats and potentially even a handful of Republicans in Congress.

“Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment. It’s the honorable thing to do,” Massie wrote on social media. “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.”