Navy admiral fired by Hegseth advances to South Carolina Democratic primary runoff

Nancy Lacore- the three star Navy rear Admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year is now headed to a Democratic runoff in a South Carolina congressional race.

While she served in the navy for 35 years and was chief of the navy reserve when she was fired by Hegseth in August. Notably, she will contest a June run-off against Mac Deford for the Democratic nomination for South Carolina’s first congressional district in midterm elections.

According to a New York Times analysis, Lacore is supported by veterans' groups, which supports Democratic candidates running for office. 

Most importantly, she raised $500,000 in her first two weeks as a candidate, and more than $1.4m in May. She lost her job the exact same day Hegseth fired head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse for purportedly writing an analysis of US military strikes from June 2025.

Hegseth said at the time: “You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated – choose your word. This was an historically successful attack.” According to Hegseth at an inaugural address of military commanders in Virginia in September:

“For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” further added.