Nancy Lacore, the three-star admiral Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed last August, won the Democratic primary runoff for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District on Monday night. She will face Republican Jenny Honeycutt, a Charleston County Council member who dispatched state Rep. Mark Smith in the GOP runoff the same evening.
The seat opened after Rep. Nancy Mace fell short in her bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination earlier this month. The district stretches along South Carolina's southeastern coast and has been in Republican hands since Mace flipped it in January 2021.
Decision Desk HQ called both races, as The Hill reported. The general election will guarantee a milestone: whichever woman prevails becomes the third ever elected to the U.S. House from the Palmetto State, joining Mace and Rep. Sheri Biggs.
Lacore spent more than three decades in the Navy, rising from pilot to vice admiral. She served more than a year as chief of the Navy Reserve before Hegseth removed her, along with dozens of other military leaders, in a broad Pentagon shake-up last August.
That removal became the centerpiece of her campaign. She has leaned on her service record and cast herself as a critic of the Washington establishment, running on a platform of lowering housing costs, expanding healthcare and educational opportunities for veterans, and protecting South Carolina's coastline.
Hegseth's restructuring of senior military leadership has been one of the most consequential, and contested, features of his tenure at the Defense Department. He forced the Army chief of staff into immediate retirement as part of an accelerating overhaul, a move that drew attention from both parties.
Lacore defeated Mac Deford, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and former general counsel of Hilton Head Island, in the Democratic runoff. Specific vote margins were not immediately available.
On the Republican side, Honeycutt has served on the Charleston County Council since 2018. She ran on cost of living and border security, framing herself as a practical local official who understands balanced budgets.
In an ad she shared on social media earlier this month, Honeycutt put the pitch simply:
"Families balance their budgets. Congress should too."
She has touted her view that Congress needs to rein in federal spending, a message tailored to a district that, as of 2019, had the highest median income of South Carolina's seven congressional districts, at more than $77,100.
That affluence cuts both ways. Voters in the district can feel the squeeze of inflation and federal overreach more acutely when they are already shouldering high property values, insurance costs, and state taxes. Honeycutt's emphasis on fiscal restraint speaks directly to those concerns.
Federal Election Commission filings show a significant cash-on-hand disparity heading into the general election. Lacore's campaign reported more than $279,000 as of June 3. Honeycutt's campaign had just over $48,000 on the same date.
That roughly six-to-one advantage gives Lacore room to define the race early. Republicans will need outside spending or a rapid fundraising surge to close the gap before voters head to the polls.
The broader Pentagon leadership shakeup under Hegseth, including his decision to strike officers from Army promotion lists, could fuel Democratic messaging in a district with a significant military and veteran population. Whether that translates into crossover votes is another question entirely.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its rating for the 1st District from solidly Republican to likely Republican last week. That is not a five-alarm fire for the GOP, but it is a signal that the race warrants serious attention.
Mace held the seat for three terms. Before her, the district was a reliable Republican stronghold. Democrats have not won here in decades, and the underlying partisan lean still favors the GOP. But an open seat, a well-funded Democratic nominee with a compelling biography, and a Republican nominee who starts with a thin war chest create conditions that demand early engagement from national Republicans.
Hegseth's Pentagon moves continue to generate headlines, and political consequences. His reported friction with Army Secretary Driscoll and other senior leaders has kept the Defense Department in the news cycle, giving Democrats a ready-made narrative about military readiness and institutional stability.
For Honeycutt, the challenge is clear: make the race about federal spending, border security, and local accountability, not about a fired admiral's grievance with the Pentagon.
Both nominees now pivot to a general election in a district where Republicans hold the structural advantage but cannot afford complacency. Lacore's military biography and cash advantage give her a credible lane. Honeycutt's local government experience and fiscal message give her the issues voters in the district tend to prioritize.
The broader context matters, too. Hegseth's ongoing overhaul of Pentagon leadership, including moves like the forced retirement of Gen. Randy George, will inevitably shadow this race. Democrats will try to nationalize it. Republicans will try to localize it.
The winner inherits a district with real concerns about housing costs, veterans' services, and coastal resilience. Whoever earns the seat will also make history as the third woman South Carolina has ever sent to the House.
Republican voters in the 1st District didn't build a decades-long majority by ceding ground on spending and security. Honeycutt has the right message. Now she needs the resources, and the discipline, to deliver it before a well-funded opponent rewrites the race around a Pentagon grudge match.
