New Delhi: Democrat Nancy Stewart Lacore, retired US Navy three-star admiral and former Chief of the Navy Reserve, is projected to defeat Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. She was removed from her military leadership position by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in August 2025.
Decision desk HQ (US organisation for election results and data) projected Lacore as the winner. This marks a significant Democrat gain in a constituency that Trump carried by 13 percent points in 2024. It also takes a former senior military officer who once criticised the Trump administration’s defence leadership to the edge of entering Congress.
According to the projected results, Lacore has defeated Honeycutt by more than 3,300 votes, securing 49.7 percent of the vote against her Republican opponent who got 48.6 percent.
Lacore said Honeycutt’s campaign had contacted her to concede the contest. Honeycutt thanked her supporters and said “commitment to the people I love and the place I call home will never waver”.
“We have a lot of work to do in Congress and change isn’t going to happen overnight. But I will always be focused on serving with integrity and results. I am grateful and humbled by the Lowcountry’s trust in me, and I look forward to delivering for them in Congress,” Lacore said in a statement to WSAV (TV channel).
Departing Republican representative Nancy Mace also congratulated Lacore. “Congratulations to Congresswoman-elect Nancy Lacore on her win last night, and to all of South Carolina’s newly elected officials… It has been the honour of my lifetime to serve South Carolina. I will continue to work hard for the Lowcountry until my very last day,” she told WSAV.
Lacore’s projected victory comes more than a year after Hegseth removed her as Chief of the Navy Reserve without an official reason, ending her 35-year military career. She retired as a vice-admiral. She began her service as a helicopter pilot and rose through the ranks and became Chief of the Navy Reserve in August 2024.
She was removed after a series of senior military officers were dismissed under Hegseth. Lacore made the dismissals the central point of her campaigns.
In an interview with USA Today before the election, Lacore criticised what she described as the injection of politics and religion into the military, adding that it weakened the fabric that made the military strong. She also questioned Hegseth’s leadership and his handling of the Iran war.
Lacore’s projected win could flip the decision of Hegseth, who removed her from the military, into a political challenge. Once the result is officially certified, she will be sworn in and will enter the 110th Congress in January 2027.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)