Democrat Nancy Lacore Projected to Win South Carolina House Seat After Hegseth Firing

Democrat Nancy Lacore, the former Navy admiral fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is projected to win South Carolina’s First Congressional District, which would flip a seat long held by Republicans.With 99 percent of the vote in, Ms. Lacore leads a Republican Charleston County Council member, Jenny Costa Honeycutt, by 3,308 votes. The state calls for an automatic recount if the margin is less than one percent. The current margin is 1.1 percent.The seat was previously held by Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican who gave up her position this year for an unsuccessful bid for South Carolina governor. The win marks a major Democratic gain in a district President Trump carried by 13 percentage points in the last presidential election.Ms. Lacore’s firing from her post as chief of the Navy Reserve became a central theme of her campaign. Mr. Hegseth removed her from the role without explanation months before the election, a move that drew national attention as part of a broader pattern of the Trump administration targeting perceived critics of the president and a purge of leaders whom Mr. Hegseth described as “DEI” hires. The controversy helped fuel a surge in donations, with Ms. Lacore raising nearly $5 million by mid-October, compared to roughly $1.3 million for Ms. Honeycutt.On the campaign trail, Ms. Lacore repeatedly criticized Mr. Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon, casting him as the public face of the increasingly unpopular war in Iran — a message that appears to have resonated with voters in the coastal district.A retired Navy officer with more than three decades of service, Ms. Lacore began her career as a helicopter pilot before rising to become chief of the Navy Reserve, where she oversaw more than 60,000 sailors and completed two deployments. She later worked as a defense contractor while raising her six children. Ms. Lacore used that national security background to appeal to voters uneasy about Mr. Hegseth’s handling of the Defense Department.Before reaching the general election, Ms. Lacore survived a competitive Democratic primary, defeating Coast Guard veteran Mac Deford in a June runoff in the military-friendly district.Ms. Honeycutt, a lifelong South Carolina resident, runs a law firm on James Island specializing in construction-related disputes and previously worked as a law clerk for then-Governor Mark Sanford. She focused her campaign on cutting government spending and reducing the national debt, while Ms. Lacore pointed to Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war as drivers of inflation.Ms. Lacore’s victory comes in a district that was redrawn after the 2020 census to favor Republicans more heavily, making her win the seat’s third flip in eight years. Republicans had controlled the district for nearly 40 years before Democrat Joe Cunningham won it in 2018.

Democrat Nancy Lacore Projected to Win South Carolina House Seat After Hegseth Firing

Democrat Nancy Lacore Projected to Win South Carolina House Seat After Hegseth Firing

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